


Café Prince

by Breathable_Air



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Alcohol, Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - Royalty, Awkwardness, Crossdressing, Drinking, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Falling In Love, First Dates, KageHina - Freeform, Lies, Light Angst, M/M, Maid Cafe, Poverty, Realization, Slow Build, Slow Romance, Wealth, mentions of volleyball
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-12-01
Updated: 2017-07-12
Packaged: 2018-05-04 07:18:44
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 21,597
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5325401
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Breathable_Air/pseuds/Breathable_Air
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>If you've seen Coffee Prince or heard of it, the scenario makes a bit more sense. It does not go in the same direction however.</p><p>~~~</p><p>Kageyama needs someone to pretend to be his girlfriend and Hinata needs money. Surely a prince can spare some change.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A Bittersweet Agreement

**Author's Note:**

> I will update tags as I go~
> 
> Later chapters may (will) be disgustingly explicit I'm so sorry.

### Shouyou

“Good work!” Hinata shouted as he ran out of the Good Meats deli he worked at to hop on the bus to his next job. The job that paid the best, but… Well, all jobs have their pros and cons.

He had to keep working there to support his little sister and mother and they're still just barely managing to scrape by. He needed the paycheck to pay for electricity this month and he’d only been buying rice and beans this month to try to save money. Natsu was starting to hate beans and she complained loudly about her middle school friends noticing she ate the same thing everyday. Her mother shushed her because she understood that this was all they could afford to eat. She offered an apologetic look to Shou-chan feeling responsible for their situation. He would tell her it wasn’t her fault, it’s a part of aging. Besides, as an energetic 24 year old he was spry enough to have 3 jobs and do odd jobs on the side.

Some jobs more odd than others. The bus came to a stop and he hopped off, sprinting about a block to “Pure” Cafe and slipping through the entrance hopefully unnoticed. His manager caught him sneaking into the locker room with his bag though. “Hinata! Your shift starts in two minutes! You better dress quickly.” She adjusted her heavy brown glasses angrily, resting her hand on her hip. She would never understand the difficulty of getting into costume when she got to wear her business clothes, a pencil skirt and white button up. That would be so much easier to wear than… 

He pushed his head through the mess of fluff and frills hoping to find air soon, but mostly drowning in the fabric. He poked his arms out and pulled it down, finally breathing. He had to pull the many layers into place hanging off his waist, creating a cute poofy flare. A breezy, poofy flare. He tugged on his thigh highs to get some coverage, although there was still a gap between the top of the socks and the black hem of the… dress. He pushed his shorts up into the layers so it wouldn’t be seen and slipped on his white shoes with a single strap and more heel than he’d like. The manager insisted. Finally he had to tie the white apron at the pack and pull it into place in the front. 

He was done. It would’ve gone faster if he could get help from his coworkers like they could, but he wasn’t allowed to change with them since they were all girls. Oh! That reminds him to clip the extensions into the bottom of his hair and to put the headband on. And to d-do his make up. 

The first time he’d put on mascara, he’d stabbed himself in the eye and cried, but thankfully his coworkers could help him with that. They taught him to tilt his head back and take his time and eventually he could do it on his own. He thought he was pretty good at putting on lipgloss, but his sister told him anyone could do that. He considered himself _especially_ good. 

He did ok on appearance for a 5 minute rush job, he thought, approving himself and leaving the bathroom to relieve the other girl from greeting. She groaned at him, “you’re late,” before taking off and leaving him to welcome the new person walking in. He wasn’t one of the regulars, so Hinata tried to turn on the charm for the tall and dark man. He just kept glaring at him through his fringe though, making Hinata squirm a little under his gaze. “H-hello! Welcome to “Pure” Cafe!”

### Tobio

Kageyama isn’t sure how he ended up here. He just needed to get out and go far away and then he saw this girl and he just walked over. Maybe it was because he knew he needed a girlfriend and she was kind of cute. And suddenly he’s in a maid cafe? And he’s sitting at a table being waited on by this small energetic girl, who smiles so bright it’s almost annoying. He has to look away from her, but it’s like she demands to be looked at. So he does. His eyes follow her as she flits about the cafe talking to customers and coworkers and smiling. Then he has to stop looking because he’s afraid he’s being creepy or going blind.

He looks down at his pant’s. The only pair of jeans he owns as part of his “normal” disguise. He doesn’t wear them often, only when he has to get away from being royalty. Actually that’s become kind of often lately. All because his mother was pushing him to find a girlfriend and keeps setting him up on blind dates with “ladies”. Only ever annoying girls who care too much about their social class, like hell he was going to marry any of them. He didn’t want to marry anyone. Not because he wasn’t open to falling in love, he just didn’t want to be king. He doesn’t connect with the people the way he knows he needs to, and none of them really like him anymore… He doesn’t want to rule over unwilling people. It would be a pain. 

So he just needed to bide his time, not settle down with any of the girls, but his mother’s catching on that he’s not even trying because he won’t go on a single second date. He didn’t want to unfairly lead any of them on though, even if they were obnoxious as fuck, they still deserved decency. No. He needed a _fake_ girlfriend. Someone who would be on the same page as him. But he didn’t have any female friends and he can’t just grab a girl off the street. He sighed heavily hanging his head. 

And then the girl was back, bouncing over to him and flashing that smile that quite literally hurt to look at. His head throbbed and he shouted, “stop smiling idiot!” 

He shouldn’t’ve said that. He was the idiot. He shouldn’t bring this much attention to himself. What if someone noticed? He saw that everyone was looking at him and the girl. He looked up to see her glaring at him before shouting back, “What’s wrong with smiling?! Why do you hate happiness?! Maybe you should just shut up! A-And stop glaring at me! I didn’t do anything wrong!” 

Kageyama was surprised for a second that someone so happy could suddenly get so fired up. Only for a second before he realized he was being challenged. He stood slowly his height overcoming the smaller girl as she shrunk back. Any fire she had in that moment was gone now as she became fearful. He looked down on her and heard a small ‘eep’. “What makes you think you can talk to me like that?” 

It probably would’ve gone on longer if the manager hadn’t come over. She looked like she wouldn’t take any shit. “Is there a problem here?” She asked, a false smile plastered to her face. That voice definitely said ‘take no shit’.

“No problem,” he replied coolly, “I was just leaving.”  
He tries not to stomp out.

He goes to catch the next bus waiting alone at the stop, wishing he had just driven his car. His car wouldn’t help him blend in though. Besides, he wasn’t alone for long.

She sat down on the other end of the bench, still in her costume and sniveling. It was a pitiful sight. He didn’t really like her, but he didn’t find any joy seeing her like this. Reluctantly he cleared his throat, “Oi. What happened to you?”

She looked up at him, a nasty glare burning him, probably worse than the smile. “I got fired! Any idiot could guess that.” 

He did not like her. Was she calling him an idiot? She’s the idiot. He’s about to tell her that, but the she’s wiping the snot off her face. It’s not like it was his fault she was fired. “Over one fight?” He asks and her shoulders stiffen. Ah. Not his fault, “so really you were just a bad employee.”

“Hey! I wouldn’t’ve been fired today if it wasn’t for you and your big mouth.” Then she pouted, “I didn’t really like the job anyway, I just needed the money for my family.”

And it clicks then for Kageyama. “I have money,” he says.

### Shouyou

He’s boasting about having money in front of some who just lost a job? What a jerk. “Good for you.” Hinata tells him, a little edge in his voice. 

Jerk groans, “No, dumbass, I can give you money. In exchange for work of course.”

Hinata shivered. He’s been warned about these situations, he used to be so prepared for them when he was younger, but now… isn’t he too old for this to happen to him?! He proceeds cautiously, interested in the money. “What kind of work?” He eyed the man suspiciously, trying to let him know he was onto him. 

“Be my girlfriend.”

Oh my god. Is this a sex thing?? “I-I Don’t do sex for money! I’m not a prostitute!” He blurted quickly. He didn’t want anyone to get any wrong ideas. 

Jerk is obviously taken aback. Did he think Hinata looked that much like a sex worker? Wait why is he getting angry, “I meant,” he grumbled, “you should pretend to be my girlfriend to get my mother off my back. No s-sex.”

Oh. That made him feel better. Except… “How do I know I can trust you? That you won’t take advantage of me?”

“Why the hell would I want to do that! Huh?” Hinata’s not sure why anyone would ever want to do that, so Jerk’s argument really isn’t very good. He’s slowly backing away from the guy, trying to be inconspicuous when he sighs heavily and says, “there will be a contract. Completely legal.”

That makes it feel a lot less shady, “that makes sense,” he says.

“Of course it does.”

“How much?” He asks, looking up at the taller boy. Would it even be worth it to keep pretending to be a girl, and to have to hang out with this guy? He watches Jerk’s face contort as he’s thinking. Regretfully thinking that he doesn’t look too bad when he’s not being all scary. Which is most of the time. 

Then Jerk is pulling out his phone and doing some… calculations? “This much” He hold the phone in front of Hinata’s face and the boy has to rub his eyes to believe the amount. “For a fake date” he says, “which I’d also pay for.

It would be stupid for hinata to say no. With this he could actually pay the bills this month and still have some leftover, not to mention it gave him a lot of freetime too. He would be stupid to say no. For some reason he’s still not saying yes. “Wait, but how would your mom even find out about the date? Wouldn’t it be pointless?” 

“About that,” Jerk said, oddly calm and not scary, “you would end up in tabloids with me sometimes.”

“Tabloids?”

“And newspapers.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m a prince.” He’s saying it matter of factly, but there’s a twitch of a smile when Hinata gushes at him, slightly amazed by a modern day prince.

Before he remembers how crappy this guy is and scoffs, “explains why you’re so entitled.”

Kageyama glares at him and reaches out to grab at his head, but Hinata’s too fast for him and dodges, laughing. He laughs a bit harder when Kageyama looks at his empty hand, surprised he couldn’t catch him. 

“Oh!” Hinata stop suddenly, “I need your contact info. You have a phone?”

“You just saw my phone.”

“Right! Then what’s your number?”

“...This is for business only.”

“Of course. Who’d wanna be friends with you?”

“ _Oi_.” He gave him his phone and took Hinata’s phone to put his name and number in himself. 

_Shouyou isn’t a very girly name_ , he thought as he was putting himself in and changed it to ‘Shouko’. He felt worse lying about his name though so he just deleted the first name entirely, handing back the phone embarrassed. When he got his phone back he looked at the new contact.

**Kageyama Tobio**

“You just have one name?” 

Hinata looked up at the dark haired boy. At Kageyama. And laughed nervously, sweat starting to roll. 

“D-do you really need to know my first name?” 

He stares at him expectantly. “It’s,” and Hinata can’t stop himself, “Sho-Shouko, but no one calls me that, it’s usually just shou-chan.” Most of it was true. His cheeks are dusted a light pink from sharing his nickname and he looks to the ground to avoid Kageyama's dark eyes looking into his own. They sit in silence. 

The bus must be running late. 

“Tomorrow,” Kageyama says, “we’ll create a contract.” 


	2. And So...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone who decided to read and support and give kudos! It really motivated me and also made me smile to myself like an idiot more than once ^_^ Some of you even left comments ♥♥ 
> 
> ~
> 
> I do not condone gender stereotyping and heteronormativity. The boys however are most likely conditioned that way so I will be trying to stay true to what I feel their opinions would be. This is the only time I'll address it, I hope not to offend.

### Shouyou

**Kageyama Tobio** : I know we agreed on 8 but I'm picking you up at 6. I'm sure you don't have any expensive clothing. I have your schedule so I know you're not busy.

Hinata groaned at the text and replied “k” begrudgingly. No, he didn't have any expensive clothes (let alone any girl clothes that weren't a maid costume), but he didn't need to be an ass about it. He wondered if he was going to get paid for the two extra hours. He hoped so because dress shopping _and_ hanging out with Kageyama didn't sound like fun to him. He should never have given him his schedule, it gave him too much control.

Kageyama had goaded him into it last week when they were discussing the contract.

“You’re constantly moving from one job to the next, I need to know when you're free and when you’re busy. It will make things easier, just make a copy for me.” 

“Fine, but it doesn't mean you should bother me whenever I'm free.”

“I'm not going to do that!” 

Hinata snickered and Kageyama grabbed his shoulder roughly, eliciting a whine from the smaller boy. “Ok fine!” He let go with a huff.

“Good. We need to agree on the rest of this.” He flipped through the papers, the actual contract he had gotten from somewhere, and stopped in the middle of the thick packet. “Payment for appearances.” Hinata saw him swallow noticeably and lean in to speak quietly. Maybe they shouldn’t’ve met in a public coffee shop. “Since you're pretending to be my girlfriend, we may have to do a few things that couples do, l-like holding hands and-”

“What?!” Hinata whispered roughly, interrupting him, a slight flush on both faces.

“Shut up, you'll get paid more so it's not a big deal.”

Hinata squinted at him, “how much more?”

Kageyama pointed to a number on the page. A rather large number. Hinata’s eyes widened approving the price. _That_ just for holding hands? He started to think about what he could do with that money. No more beans for Natsu ever again. She could even buy food with her friends at school with money like this. She'd be so happy.

“It's even more for kissing,” Kageyama said, taking him out of his thoughts. _Kissing?_ Hinata was not about to start kissing boys for money. Especially one he didn't even like.

“I'm not kissing you.” Hinata said gruffly, maybe too much like a boy, but Kageyama didn't seem to notice. He also didn’t notice the red on his face. Hopefully.

“I don't want to kiss you either dumbass, but if I need to I'm going to and I need to know how much you want to be compensated.” Compensated is not the word he should use. Hinata frowned at him. “It's like a kiss on the hand, or the cheek, I doubt I'll ever need to kiss you on the lips, but we need to talk about the hypotheticals. Strictly hypothetical.”

“Strictly hypothetical, right?”

Kageyama nodded sharply at him.

“Ok then…” He peeked over at the sheet to see yet another big number. It almost brought tears to his eyes, but then he thought about being kissed by Kageyama and that almost brought tears to his eyes. For very different reasons. He thought his virtue was worth, “More than that,” he said out loud.

Kageyama looked at him, like maybe they weren't seeing the same thing. “You want more?”

Hinata had made him raise the number until he was satisfied before he signed, but it's not like it really mattered. After all it was completely hypothetical. He shouldn't have anything to worry about since this was only the first date, and no one kisses on first dates. Still he was dreading it, that is until he saw the car he was being picked up in.

### Tobio

Kageyama had to admit that he liked impressing Hinata. It was stupidly easy to do. She bounced around the slick black car making noises of approval before Kageyama told her to get in already. 

“How fast does it go?” She asked excitedly, wiggling in the leather seat as she buckled in. He had to stifle his laughter; most people asked how much it cost. 

“When we’re on the highway, I could show you.”

Her eyes sparkled up at him and she commanded, “show me.” 

The hum of the motor reverberated in the car as they sped on the highway, Hinata whooping as he passed other cars, slipping between lanes. She tried to get higher into the air, but Kageyama had to yell at her when she started to fiddle with the seatbelt. “You're being no fun!” She yelled into the wind, raising her arms and smiling at the feeling. “I’m always riding my bike, or taking the bus, so it’s pretty rare that I get to be in a car. And to get to be in a car this nice and fast! It’s just like,” she extends her hand to either side of herself, “‘gwaah!’” 

_Gwah?_

He doesn’t know why he says, “well, you can just text me if you ever need a ride. Or you wanna go fast.” He didn’t even think it through. Probably because he likes to gloat about his fancy car that Hinata loves. 

She eyes him and asks, “what’s the catch?”

“Why would there be a catch? I’m just being polite.” That’s what he was doing, right? Anyone would offer such a simple thing. 

“It’s weird when you’re being nice,” she remarked.

“It’s not!”

She laughed to herself beside him, a quiet smile sticking to her face. He decided to keep a cautious eye on her in case she tried anything dangerous again, but she was good for the rest of the trip.

They pulled up to a small boutique called “Candy!” that Kageyama had heard his mother talk about as an up and coming business. He supposed it must be good then, he didn't know enough about dresses to know if what was in the window was “cute” or not. He held the door open for Hinata (who didn't seem to like that) and followed her into the shop. 

He looked around at all the frills and fabrics and patterns and had no idea what to do. Should he try to pick a dress for her? He looked over for Hinata, but she had disappeared between the many racks somewhere. She was too short to see the top of her head, so he just looked at the dresses. They were organized by color, starting with red and going through the rainbow. He picked up a dress, kind of long, and draped it over his arm walking through the aisle. He had picked up a few by the time he reached the dressing rooms at the back.

The curtain swished and Hinata stepped out in a fluffy brown dress and she seemed stunned for a second, being caught by Kageyama. She bends in laughter, and slaps her exposed knee. She was looking past Kageyama at a full length mirror of herself in what seemed to be, a burlap sack. “This dress is so ugly!”

Right. Of course Hinata knows what looks good and what doesn't. She is a girl after all. This should be easier then. “I brought some for you to try,” he offered, holding out the pile.

She eyed the long red one and dead panned to Kageyama, “I’m not that tall you know.”

“I know that,” he snapped, “just take them.”

She must have done it to spite him, or mock him, trying it on first. She came out with heaps of silky crimson fabric in her arms, giggling and tripping. She held it up higher, exposing her thighs a bit. Kageyama looked up quickly and demanded, “go put on some clothes.”

“This is clothes?” She said tilting her head, but Kageyama was already pushing her back behind the curtain. 

“Try the green one.” He said. That one had long sleeves, and mid length skirt, which would seem full on Hinata. She’d be perfectly covered. Not that her skin bothered him, It just...

“Hello,” someone said, tapping him on the shoulder. “Are we finding everything alright?” It was a blond girl as small as Hinata, her hair in cute curled pigtails. She seemed happy enough, but intimidated by Kageyama, like everyone. 

“I… think so.” he replied honestly, but then Hinata stepped out looking like she was from the renaissance era and the girl cringed. “Or maybe not.”

She smiled at them both, “well, my name is Yachi and I can help you and your… girlfriend?”

### Shouyou

_Girlfriend_. Is this what Hinata’s life has become? He flustered at the thought, putting his face in his hands. 

“Th-thanks,” Kageyama replied for both of them, not denying their fake relationship. So it was actually happening. 

“No problem, I’m here to help.” She stepped over to Hinata, examining him before saying, “You can disrobe in there and I’ll be back with something I think might work perfectly.” 

For a moment, as he’s taking off the dress, he wonders if Yachi (a real girl, not an idiot like Kageyama) could tell he was a boy. She had looked so closely at him making him feel transparent and vulnerable. Kind of like now, standing naked (except his boxer briefs) in a small curtained space, no locking doors. 

“Here,” a voice came from behind him and Hinata jumped, turning to it. “Try this,” Yachi said, her hand poking through holding a light purple dress. He grabbed it from her, telling her thanks and beginning to unlace the back. Which meant the back was laced. Great. “Tell me if you need anything,” she said before leaving.

Hinata heard her voice again only moments later. “She’s cute.” He heard her say. She must be talking to Kageyama.

“Yeah,” he heard Kageyama reply and he wished he couldn’t hear them, because his face was starting to heat up. It’s not the first time he’s been called cute. He heard it everyday working at Pure. He didn’t even say it directly, he only agreed. He probably didn’t even mean it, just keeping up appearances. 

He didn’t even know Hinata was a boy.

Nothing about it was real.

But he couldn’t stop his head from replaying it. _Yeah._ His chest squeezed and he couldn’t blame the dress for being too tight because he still couldn’t lace up the back. 

“How long have you been dating?” She asks. 

“Y-yachi!” He interrupted, saving Kageyama from needing to answer, “Can you help me with the back?”

“Oh,” She brightened at being needed (and probably for having an excuse to not continue that gruelling conversation), “sure!”

Once she got him laced up, he could see that the dress was the same basic design as his maid outfit. The familiarity comforted him, but it didn’t quite fit the same around his chest. At Pure the manager knew he was a boy and made arrangements with that in mind, but this dress was made for girls. _Actual girls_. 

He huffed at the looseness and Yachi giggled. “This is no big deal, it happens to a lot of customers. I can help you if you want?” 

“Sure,” he said, but he didn’t know quite what he was agreeing to and suddenly there were hands on him. She started pushing his chest inward and then pulling at the laces in back, alternating between the two and finally pulling tightly (almost too tight) and tying them up. Hinata breaths out the breath he didn’t know he was holding when she’s finally done.

“There,” she said, satisfied, “ready to see?”

He nodded and she slid the curtain so he could see the mirror. The lilac dress hung softly from his waist, a gentle swoosh in the sway of fabric. The top half started at white with what Yachi called a ‘sweetheart’ neckline. (Somehow she’d made it look like he had a chest when he had literally no chest.) The white faded into lilac around his ribcage and kept going until there was about three inches to the hem which turned into a dark purple and then almost black. The hem was only a bit higher than his knees, so it was longer than the maid outfit and had more layers underneath. He flipped the tag over in his hand. It was more expensive too. Why would Kageyama buy something so pricy if Hinata was only going to wear it once? He could buy like 30 regular outfits with this much money. 

“We’ll take that one,” he hears and looks up to see Kageyama’s there too. He must’ve missed him when he was looking in the mirror.

He starts to argue, “you don’t even know how mu-”

“She’s wearing it out.” He says a little louder and Yachi scrambles to get to the register.

He grumbles under his breath, grabbing the clothes he came in as Kageyama pays.

They walk out to the car silently as Kageyama starts it and pulls away. They sit in silence for a few minutes more than is comfortable, but Hinata’s still in shock that he just bought something without even knowing how much it cost. He was envious of his luxury. He forgot for a moment he wasn’t a regular person, he was a prince. He could have whatever he wanted. He wondered why he couldn’t get a girlfriend then. Or at least a real girl for a fake girlfriend. He could’ve just made some average girl swoon by telling her he’s a prince willing to pay her to be seen with him, pay for their dates, buy her dresses and even pay her to be _kissed_. By a _prince_. 

So why did it have to be him? They hated each other.

Well, maybe the whole thing was a little hard to believe.

“You,” Kageyama cleared his throat, startling Hinata, “you look nice.”

Hinata had to pause for a moment and stare at Kageyama, before breaking and exclaiming, “Ahh! So weird!” He tried to bury his smile in his hand. Why was he smiling?

“Sh-shut up!” He retaliates, but Hinata doesn’t. He keeps poking fun at him until he’s playfully pissed off and flustered. The tension dissolves nicely into the orange air. 

Hinata doesn’t hate this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (some of those dresses, the tighter, more revealing dresses made it too obvious Hinata was a boy)   
> Next chapter: The actual date. "no one kisses on first dates" he says. hah. We'll see what happens.


	3. First Date

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for the wait! exams man, amirite??? ik for sure a got an A/B on ap psych midterm and what can i say. I'm _psyched_ pft

### Tobio

She talks a lot. Kageyama knew this of course. Sometimes it’s helpful when she just talks at him and all he has to do is nod. She makes interacting easy, but he thought for sure she’d stop talking when she had food in her mouth. 

She talks around the expensive food, staring out the large wall of windows over the city landscape, the dim lighting inside providing a clear view of the night sky. He had no clue what she was saying, but she seemed excited. He smiled to himself because he knew she would be, it’s why he chose Kozue*. He enjoyed showing off a bit. 

Then she looks over at him expectantly, like a loyal dog almost. Cute. In the dog sense, of course, he wasn’t thinking she was cute like this was an actual date or-

“Kageyama? You ok?” She asks still looking at him, tilting her head slightly as she tends to do. Her hair falls behind her back, exposing her neck, her collarbone, her shoulder. Oh. She had some freckles.

“I’m fine. Shut up and eat,” he says, a bit defensively.

“No problem,” she says piling more food into her mouth. It wasn't the least bit lady like. Kageyama bit back a laugh, eating some of his own food.

“I bet you eat food like this all the time,” she says, because not talking _is_ a problem for her. She can't shut up.

He sighed. Eating in silence was what his dates had been like before this. Before Hinata. “Our chef makes most of my meals.”

Her eyes shined up at him, “you have a chef??” 

“Of course idiot, I'm a prince, remember?”

“Well it's still cool!” She argues, “what other prince stuff do you have? A personal hair dresser? Maybe you should get a new one, Kageyama~” she snickers at her jab and he glares at her. He would've reached over to squeeze her head in his grasp, but they're in an expensive restaurant damn it. 

“Flora does an adequate job. I'm not going to fire her.” He's not going to give Hinata the satisfaction of impacting his decisions. He would consider it later. For his own reasons.

“What else?” 

“I have a dresser.”

She frowns at this. “I have a dresser too, I'm not that poor.”

“No dumbass, a personal dresser. Someone who picks out my clothes before I make appearances. Someone to make me look like a prince.” His dresser had helped him before he left tonight. He'd put him in a navy blue suit, with shiny black lapels and a thin black tie which he'd already loosened. The neck felt too stiff, it was hard for him to even swallow without feeling the collar on his throat.

“Ooooh, so you don't have to worry about picking the right clothes.”

“No, so I don't _get to_ pick my own clothes. It's ridiculous. I'm 23, I know how to pick out my own clothes.” Although he’s not sure if he even has a fashion sense seeing as he’d never dressed himself. All he wanted to wear these days was a t-shirt and sweatpants, he was already tired of “looking nice”. He’d rather be comfortable. He could feel himself frowning, (more than usual) but then she's laughing at him. Does he sound like a child the way he's complaining? “Sorry,” he tries, but she just waves her hand at him.

“You're only 23?! I'm 24! I'm older than you.” She's still giggling when she says, “I'm your elder in life, you need to show some more respect for me.” No. No he doesn't have to respect her when she's sniggering about his youth. He's an adult, they were on the same plane. 

Besides, “I'm still taller than you,” he states, straightening unconsciously in his cushioned black seat. She stops laughing and looks (up) at him with what must be glare. She shoves more food in her mouth and says… Something.

“Don't talk with your mouth full,” he chides, but she smiles at him, her cheeks chubby, and repeats whatever it is the sushi’s muffling. 

 

She doesn't stop asking him questions about being a prince, and he can't stop answering. He doesn't even want to, but it's like the first time he saw her again. She's bending him to her will somehow. Her eyes watch him and he can feel the heat of her focused gaze. His hand shakes when he puts down his chopsticks. 

“Why don't you have a real girlfriend?”

“I don't want one. It's too much trouble.”

“Why is it trouble?”

“Because I'd have to take her on dates and talk to her and-”

“You're doing all of that right now?”

“This is different. This is fake,” it is fake, but she scoffs at the answer. “All my other dates were set up with intentions of a lifelong partnership in royalty. It was more pressure to try to get along, and I’m,” he sighs, rubbing his palm on his forehead, “I'm not easy to get along with.” He hates admitting that. The fact that he’s admitting this to Hinata seems even harder. Probably because this was just another thing for her to tease him about.

“Maybe they weren't trying hard enough,” she says, “I mean, you're tolerable.” Tolerable. That's what his other dates thought too; that he was tolerable. And they did try. They tried very hard because all of them wanted to be a queen.

“I don't even want to take the throne,” he says. Hinata didn't seem surprised. She didn't even react, she didn't say ‘but you have to’.

She just asked, “why not?” 

“Because,” he feels himself about to tell her, it's like she already knows the way she looks right through him. Stop. Stop looking. “Because I don't want to.”

“Oh,” she says, she's… Disappointed. He doesn’t know why.

“What does that mean?”

“What?”

“Nothing, never mind.”

For the first time tonight it’s silent. Like a real date. No. Like a bad date.

He doesn’t like it. With Hinata it seems extra uncomfortable to not be talking. He watches her just pushing at her food instead of shoving it in her face. She looks up and catches his eyes on hers. She clears her throat, “I just didn’t know what else to say. It’s not really my place to try to give you advice about it, I’m not you. I’m like… the opposite of you.”

“How?”

“Well,” she laughs, “I don’t have any money!”

A smile tugs at his lips, but he keeps it down. “How else?”

“Um,” she’s thinking harder now, “I don’t have a personal chef, more like I am the chef at home, oh! And at the deli where I work. Although all I’m really doing is cutting meat there, but then I’m a waiter at Linguini, and I was at Pure too, until you got me fired.” 

“I didn’t get you fired. You’re just a shitty employee.”

“Hey!” Her mouth slides up into a teasing grin, “Are you not satisfied with my performance boss?” She leans in playfully, dangerously. Kageyama noticeably tenses, but she’s so oblivious she doesn’t see it. “What I’m getting at is, I wait on people and you’re waited on. We’re opposites. Nothing in common.”

“Why do you have so many jobs anyway?”

She looks at him like he’s stupid.

### Shouyou

Kageyama’s kind of stupid, isn’t he?

“I told you already, I don’t have any money.”

He looks frustrated, “I mean what about the rest of your family? Can’t they get jobs?”

_Oh._ “My mother… is ill, and my sister is only in high school.” He hopes he doesn’t ask about his mom. He doesn’t. 

“It’s not uncommon for high schoolers to have jobs.”

“She doesn't need to get a job. I can handle it by myself.”

“Really? Because you always look tired, even when you're bouncing off the walls.”

He laughs at that, “It's a grown up thing, you'll understand when you're older.” He pats at the air with his hand demeaningly, Kageyama's about to yell at him, but then he gets serious and says, “I want my sister to have what I couldn't since I had to drop out of school when I was 15 to support our family, and I had to,” he swallows hard, it hurts, “I had to quit volleyball. I had to leave my team. Sometimes I miss them a whole lot, but it's what I needed to do.” It is what he needed to do. But he never wanted to.

He's looking down in his lap, his fists clenched on his knees, but he could feel Kageyama’s stare on him. He must look like he's in pain because he feels like it. He especially misses his team this time of year. Summer break had meant more training and more time with his team mates. They were a lot like family. Family he can’t go back to now since they had all graduated.. Some moved, some went on to uni, some started careers. At least that’s what Hinata imagined when he thought of them. He had a lot of time to think about them.

He feels a hand on his head then, ruffling his hair and he looks up at Kageyama, who's red to the tips of his ears, looking out the window like something's going on in the sky. Hinata can't help a smile.

Someone like this should be able to get a girlfriend.

“I,” Kageyama starts and Hinata mentally finishes the sentence a million different ways in his head. ‘I think you're cute’, ‘I think I like you’, ‘I think I love you’, ‘I know you're a boy’, ‘I know you're lying to me’, ‘I can't trust you’. His heart beats. His heart hammers.

He doesn't say any of those things. He says, “I used to play volleyball too.” The most unexpected, but best way to finish the sentence.

“Really?” 

“Yes really,” he removes his hand from his head and cold takes the place of his warmth, “why would I lie about it?” Hinata doesn't respond because he knows it's rhetorical, he just looks on expectantly. _tell me more_ he urges and Kageyama replies, “I stopped when I was 14 because no one liked being on my team, even though I was good, they said I was…” He mumbles the last bit so Hinata leans in.

“What?”

“They said I was too controlling.”

If Hinata hadn't leaned in he wouldn't have heard him. Or maybe Kageyama spoke so only Hinata could hear him. It was meant to be a private conversation. Kageyama's hand was touching him (again). It was laying over his hand, making his slender fingers seem small in comparison. His hand was warm and slightly rough, though Hinata couldn't imagine why since he was a prince and he never had to lift a hand if he didn't want to. Then Hinata could feel it, the pulse in his fingertips resting on the table, he wondered if Kageyama-

The clicks and flashes bring Hinata out of his thoughts, startled he tries to drag his hand back, but the grip gets tighter. Oh, yeah. He said they'd have their picture taken. It's just for show. He relaxes into the hold. The flashes get closer and the person taking them starts asking questions. “Prince Kageyama! Who is your date this evening?” 

Oh. Was his (fake) name, going to be in the paper? They hadn't discussed that. 

“Hinata Shouko. Please leave us to our dinner now.”

“Wait, is that going to be in a paper?” Hinata questions.

The pressperson looks over to him, “of course! Why? You wanna tell me anything?” Their dark eyebrows twitch upward above the rim of their glasses in excitement. 

Hinata wants to get excited with them, but Kageyama shoots him a look.

“Don’t give him anything Hinata.” He turns to the reporter in a tracksuit, a tie and button up underneath. He really wasn’t dressed for this place. How did he get in? “Takeda, we’re trying to have meal here.” 

Takeda doesn’t leave. He puts on his game face, determined. “Please! Just one statement and I’ll go!” 

Kageyama obviously knows the guy somehow and he relents, grumbling, “fine. ‘Hinata and I will be having a second date.’ Is that enough?”

Takeda nods, “Definitely!” 

Kageyama's hand lingers even after he’s gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Kozue is a real restaurant! i found pictures of it and it was so nice to look at and i couldn't not imagine them having the date there. image search it. You won't be disappointed. 
> 
> **Constructive criticism highly encouraged** pls i just wanna grow and give you guys better writing.
> 
> Speaking of better writing... "wow you sure that's not too much dialogue Brea? seems kinda unnecessary" "no way. hella important bonding dude. gotta happen" 
> 
> no kisses as of yet~


	4. Back Home

### Tobio

Kageyama dropped Hinata off after the date. Or the business meeting really. There was no kiss goodbye or any ‘I had a good time tonight’. It was all very formal. They said their goodnights and he drove away, maybe a bit too quickly. He couldn’t help it that he was nervous. He didn’t want Hinata to catch on that maybe he wanted to give her a kiss goodbye and he did have a good time, despite his cold attitude. He needed to think sensically and he was finding it hard to do with her around, she was so fucking distracting. He couldn’t stop looking at her.

There was a moment earlier that night, after Takeda left and they were alone again when her tone was calm. She said to him, “You must’ve changed since then,” _since volleyball_ , “because you haven’t tried to control me.” 

God, was she that oblivious? Of course he had tried to control her, she was just so uncontrolled that it seemed impossible. When he spotted a grain of rice on her cheek he wanted to control her. He wanted to wipe it off her face, to lick it off and take the control Hinata wasn’t giving him. Maybe licking it off would’ve been weird.

He thought better of it and just told her in the end, resisting to touch her at all. It was for the best. Things had to be kept professional after all. That’s what he was thinking now, driving back on the highway (sans Hinata) with plenty of time to contemplate, not expecting to make it home for about another hour. It was good she was so far away though, no one would bother her if they weren’t from his family’s reigning area (which she wasn’t). It was less chance she’d run into anyone asking her invasive questions, and less chance they’d run into each other…

He’d have to pay her extra for holding her hand. He wasn’t even thinking when he did it, so it was really a good thing Takeda showed up or it would’ve seemed like. Well, like he liked her and he didn’t want her to get that idea. What if she was only using him in hopes of becoming queen like the other girls? He shook his head at the idea, refocusing on the road before him. They were on the same page, using each other for reasons they were both aware. They weren’t keeping anything from each other. She probably wouldn’t know anything about being a queen anyway. This was enough for her and she’s made it clear she doesn’t even have an interest in him. 

That’s right. They didn’t like each other and that’s why this was going to work so well. No attachment. Or maybe just friends.

When he finally gets home his mother is waiting for him. Which is unusual because she’s the Queen of an entire country (albeit a small country) and she’s always busy, typically impossible to catch for a moment of her time. As her son, Kageyama knew this best.

“Where have you been all day?” She asks, sitting in a large dark green cushioned chair in their parlor area. She puts her book down on the small granite table next to her, in the small light of the lamp. It was the only light in the room until Kageyama signalled to a nearby maid who used a remote to light the house dimly.

Kageyama’s surprised that she noticed he was gone. “Sugawara told me you had a date.” Of course she hadn’t noticed, Suga had. Suga would always notice whatever was going on with him when his mother couldn’t be around to. Which was most of the time. He was probably going to scold him like a real parent later. Like a real parent who’d only known him since he was 15 and was just a few years older than him. He was more of his parent than his mother anyway. 

“Sorry, did you need me here? I cleared my schedule yesterday so I thought it would be fine.” 

“Well, I thought you had been informed of the marriage interview I had set up for you. It was a notable family and simply going would have helped us maintain good relations with them. We had to postpone it til tomorrow, making us look unreliable. I expect you to show up this time. No exceptions.” He nods dutifully and bows. It’s not like he ever really had plans of his own. He had no one to make them with. Except Hinata and this fake relationship.

She picks up her book again, done with the conversation. He left her there, climbing the grand staircase to the second floor and down the long hallway until he reached his bedroom. He flops down on his bed, not looking forward to tomorrow, he’d have to apologize to the girl for standing her up. His phone buzzes in his pocket, he fishes it out blindly to find a text from Hinata. He felt a little better after reading it.

>   
> **Hinata:** i had fun tonite!!! wouldnt mind doing it again for the money haha o3o

### Shouyou

He was a little shocked at himself for sending the text, but it felt good that he told him. He should have told him when he dropped him off, but he wasn’t sure it was the right thing to say. He didn’t know if he could face whatever Kageyama would say back, but he hadn’t stopped thinking about saying it since he’d been home. After his bath he decided he should just say it, even if he embarrassed himself. He fluffed his hair with his towel, glad to be in his sleepwear and not a dress, no extensions in his hair or makeup on his face. He looked over at his bookshelf, pretending to himself he was interested in reading something, pretending he wasn’t waiting for his phone to buzz in response. He scrambled for it when it finally did.

>   
> **Kageyama:** me too

He flipped his phone closed, falling back on his bed and closing his eyes. _Good, _he thought to himself before his eyes snapped back open. _Wait._ It shouldn’t matter whether they had fun together or not. The point wasn’t fun. He couldn’t help it if fun was a bonus though. __

__A very surprising bonus Hinata was sure wasn’t going to happen. This guy got him fired and called him dumbass like it was his name. He never would’ve thought they’d be able to talk so easily (when Kageyama talked at all). He thought today would be the longest day ever, but even with the dress shopping it managed to be a nice day. A good day. He even earned a decent pay._ _

__A knock came at his door so he sat up, saying, “it’s open.”_ _

__Natsu pokes her head in, smiling slyly, “How’d your date go?”_ _

__Sho’s eyes widen and he gets up to pull her in the room, closing the door behind her. He didn’t want his mom knowing he was dating some guy for money. She wouldn’t approve. “It was… good I guess? I mean I had fun and he’s not as big of a jerk as I thought. Well, no he is a jerk and he’s kinda boring, but he’s fun to hang out with anyway. And It wasn’t a date. You know I’m just doing this for the money, and he doesn’t expect anything romantic.”_ _

__She giggled at him, sitting in his desk chair. “He picked you up in a fancy car, took you to an expensive restaurant, paid for everything,” she counted off on her fingers and looked over at her older brother. “Should I keep going?”_ _

__“That- It was all part of the job. In the description,” he huffed and sat back on his bed. He wished he hadn’t told her, but he wasn’t about to go somewhere with someone who was practically a stranger and not tell anybody. If she hadn’t heard from him by 11 she was to call the police. Contract or not. He texted her his location for safety purposes, not so she could do research about them and tell him how highly praised Kozue was._ _

__“Well, maybe it starts as a job and before you know it…,” she teased, her voice sing songy. She read too much shounen-ai. Life isn’t a manga and if it was, shounen-ai wasn’t Shouyou’s genre._ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hahahahahhahhhahah there's like 0 kagehina in this short chapter is anything even happening?? Next chappie will be longer and have fluff to make up for how lame this one was (i might not even wait a full week but dont hold me to it)


	5. Second Date

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i regret giving the chapters names.

### Shouyou

He didn’t mean to start texting Kageyama so often. He’s not even sure how it happened, since Kageyama doesn’t always respond and when he does it was just a few words (usually caps and including ‘dumbass’) (he’d received an expensive education and still had such little vocabulary). It couldn’t be helped that he wanted to talk to him since Kageyama was the only friend he had. Well, that’s not true, he often talked to the old couple next door, and the regulars at his jobs, but none of them were his age. And he didn’t have their numbers unlike Kageyama. 

So when Hinata found a funny cat video at 3 am that he was just _paw_ sitive Kageyama would love as much as he did, he sent it, no hesitation. He watched on, clicking a new video, the dim screen the only illumination in his dark bedroom. It was getting colder already even though it was just the beginning of fall, he shrugged his blanket over his shoulders and tucked it underneath him on the floor. He was surprised when he was rewarded with one of Kageyama’s rare responses.

> **Kageyama:** why are you still awake? 

It was more mysterious why Kageyama was awake. And responding, And initiating an actual conversation.

  


>   
>  **You** : just stayed up watching vids. why r u up?
> 
>   
>  **Kageyama** : couldnt sleep
> 
>   
>  **You** : wanna talk? im not doing anything rn

He had to wait longer for the next text. It was obvious Kageyama was deliberating over it, since he had been responding pretty quickly before that. Maybe Hinata shouldn’t’ve asked. They weren’t really… well, no. They were friends now, right? Friends talk to each other. It wasn’t weird at all. And boundaries start to get fuzzier the longer you stay awake.

>   
>  **Kageyama** : i guess

It was probably the sleep deprivation that told him, _call him, it won’t be weird_.

He let the tone ring once, then twice before he could think about panicking. He probably wasn’t going to answer the phone. He wasn’t expecting Hinata to call him. Hinata wasn’t expecting to call him, he just couldn’t stop himself. He was weirdly giddy at the thought of hearing Kageyama’s voice over the phone at 3 in the morning. He’d probably sound-

“You,” his voice scratched quietly into the receiver, gravelly at this time of night, giving Hinata involuntary chills, “you called me.”

“Yeah,” he laughed, almost not believing it himself either. 

“Why would you do that?” He asked a little rougher. Kageyama’s voice in his ear made him feel like he was there with him in his room, not over an hour away.

“You said you wanted to talk, so talk to me. Tell me what’s keeping you up.”

He falls backwards onto his floor and closes his eyes, waiting. Kageyama doesn’t respond. He’s probably thinking it through again, getting a crease between his brow. He was always thinking and looking serious. He needed to have some fun.

“Come onnn, I’m gonna fall asleep if you don’t start talking.”

“...There’s this girl.”

Hinata tenses. He was expecting prince problems. Not girl problems. He didn’t know Kageyama's could have girl problems. 

“Oh,” he says after what he knows is too long of a pause, a clear sign of his uneasiness. How was he going to help him with this? Not like he could’ve helped with the prince problems either, but Kageyama would’ve expected that.

“And then there’s this other girl.”

No. Kageyama's don’t have _multiple_ girl problems. It’s unheard of, too bizarre.

“Are you kidding right now? I can’t tell when you’re joking.”

“I’m not kidding. My mother would like me to marry the first one, and she doesn’t really… like the idea of the other girl. Probably because she doesn’t have money or status. But she’ll get used to you.” 

Hinata remembers then that Kageyama still thinks he’s a girl and he's one of _the_ girls that he’s talking about. How could he forget? The majority of their interactions was based on him being a girl.

“So your mom found out about me,” he sighs. It was about time. Their date was a little over two weeks ago, they hadn’t seen each other in person since. There was a pretty big distance between them after all and Kageyama had likely been busy. Hinata was busy too at his jobs, but he had more free time now to just hang around. He planned meals and schedules and cleaned the house, but started to run out of things to do when he wasn’t working. He went for a jog for the first time in a long time, the burn in his lungs felt good, but he was slower than before. He’d have to start jogging more regularly to get back into shape. 

“She saw the paper today, she knew from your posture immediately that you weren’t brought up like us.”

Hinata couldn’t help a laugh, “What? My posture?”

“Yeah,” he breathed back, “she has sharp eyes.”

“Like some kind of superpower?”

“Like predator instincts ”

For a moment they’re just laughing together softly until Hinata realizes that _Kageyama’s laughing_. Hinata stops and holds it in so he can hear Kageyama. It was weird. Like seeing a ufo. It was gone as soon as he heard it.

“Hinata? You there?”

He hums, eyelids unopening, finally starting to feel tired.

“She doesn’t approve of you, but she said she’s glad that I’m showing interest.”

Hinata laughed. He was having trouble not laughing every time his low voice tickled his spine, “If only she knew you pay me to date you.”

“I’m not paying you for this conversation by the way.”

“Well, that’s because I’m the one who called you.”

“Right”

“Right”

He hears shuffling on the other side of the call. Blankets most likely. He pulls his own over him again, feeling warmer.

“So we did it,” he sighs. “My mother's not setting me up another date for awhile.”

Did that mean they were done? That would suck. This was the best job he’d ever had. If he wasn’t going to get paid from this anymore, he’d have to pick up two new jobs to make up for it. At least he was saving some of the money he was making and could probably get by while looking for another job. Some crappy job paying minimum wage most likely. That’s what he’d have to go back to after this whole thing with Kageyama. Kageyama...

Would he still talk to him? 

“So we have to go on a second date soon.” He interrupts. 

His eyes open, as if he could see Kageyama’s face when telling him this, the awkward fluster he’d be. “Oh,” he says, thankful he’s not down a job, “okay, when?”

“You’re free tomorrow, right?” Hinata laughs through his nose, making sure he isn’t heard. Kageyama already knows when he’s free, it’s a formality that he’s even asking. He’s had a lack of plans lately and tomorrow sounded really good to him. 

“Wait, by tomorrow did you mean today? Because it’s already early morning.” 

“I thought today might’ve been too soon.”

“No!” He raised his voice a bit too loudly and heard someone shift in his household somewhere. He waited a beat more making sure they had settled before curling in closer to his phone, cradling it beneath his ear. He had gotten embarrassingly excited at the prospect of doing something today. 

“Really. Won’t you be tired?”

“I won’t be tired,” he whispered, more cautious this time, “I’ll have plenty of energy because I’ll fall asleep as soon as we hang up. What do you wanna do? Another dinner?”

“I was thinking… you could pick if you want to.”

### Tobio

He had waited (for what seemed like an unnecessarily long time) for a picture of him and Hinata to show up in the paper. As soon as it did he conveniently placed it on his mother's breakfast tray so she could see he was out on a date of his own. And the sooner she found out the sooner he’d be able to hang out with Hinata again, which meant a break from being a prince. He was ready to set up the next meet (and stand next to her, just to remind her how tall he is). That's what he called it. Not a date. A meet. 

He was eager to see her in person again too, the texts were a constant reminder of her and he found himself feeling dumb for picking someone so far away. He always read them, the texts, too weak to turn his phone off or put it down even though he didn’t want to respond, he didn’t want to be building a relationship with her. He could feel himself getting attached to her though because she wasn’t making it easy to keep their distance. She was always teasing him, and poking at his weak points, too playfully for him to actually get mad, but he couldn’t NOT respond to it.

He was terrified when Hinata called him. He wasn’t wearing a shirt and even though Hinata couldn’t see it still made him feel oddly indecent. He answered shakily, questioning whether this was actually happening, laying down on his bed and staring out his glass balcony door. Moonlight was filtering through, tree branches striping it across his room. 

Hinata’s voice was slower than usual, sleep drunk from being up so long. He knew he should end the call quickly so she could go to bed, but he kept the conversation going, to keep talking to her longer, to push her, see how long she could stay up, maybe make her fall asleep on the phone. He does. She starts mumbling about all the places they could go, a list of cliches and when she gets to ‘amusement park’ she just keeps going about the rides and the food and the games and then there's just soft breathing and he knows he won. He should hang up. But he doesn't and he feels guilty for listening and wary that maybe she's not even asleep so he says her name into the receiver and she hums in response. He asks if she's awake but there's no response. 

He doesn’t remember falling asleep. 

 

Suga wakes him at 9 am, which is a late start but he still feels tired. He sits up slowly rubbing at his eyes and listening to the sounds of Suga going about his room, placing a tray of food at the old round table in the corner, leaving today's outfit at the foot of his bed, etc. Kageyama stops him before he leaves the room.

“What do you know about amusement parks?”

“Amusement parks?” He repeats with a smile, “is this for a date?”

“No.” The reply is too instant. He pauses then says, “maybe. It's more like a meeting of sorts.” 

“A meeting at an amusement park. Well, if you want to keep it professional then I think you should take them to ‘Mystery!and, where discoveries are made’ so you can get to know you're… Associate more.” He smiles with fake cheer, that usually creeps Kageyama out, but he doesn't notice, too busy thinking about the meeting. “Daichi will have to go with you this time. The Queen doesn't take kindly to you going out with no guard. You're the only heir, you need to be more responsible.”

“I know,” he grumbles. He thought he was being responsible. He went far enough away that no one really knew who he was. It's not like there was anyone that actually wanted to take him out. Their country was peaceful and small, why would anyone want to pick a fight with it? Sawamura is a decent guy, and it's nice to have him go with to marriage interviews, but you don't really bring a third person on dates. Especially not ones with Hinata. That was when he was pretending to be normal. 

“He's going with you.” Suga says a little more sternly, and sure he technically works for Kageyama, but he's not about to argue with Suga. He always loses.

“Fine,” he dismisses and starts looking for his phone in the folds of his blankets, he hears his door open and close, meaning he’s alone again. Why is this bed so big? He finds it on the floor on the other side of the bed than he slept on and texts Hinata to tell him when she wakes up. Hinata doesn't text back until noon. They decide to go later, around four, because she heard Mystery!and has a good fireworks show at nine thirty. That meant they'd probably be spending a good amount of time together. 

When they were driving to a garden lunch (with supposedly important people) he told Daichi what Suga had told him, but he already seemed to know. Of course they had already talked about it. When weren't they talking with each other. The little Bluetooth in his ear was probably a direct feed to whatever Sugawara was doing and saying. 

“Just tell me what time you need to leave. I'll drive,” Daichi told him. A part of him was hoping Daichi would have plans, but all he ever does is his job. 

Hinata might be disappointed he wasn't driving his car. 

 

She didn't seem entirely disappointed when they picked her up. She slid into the back seat after Kageyama rolled down the window and explained the situation. He noticed she was wearing a black and white striped t-shirt, a yellow light sweatshirt, and Capri pants. Of course she would wear pants they're going to an amusement park, it was just weird seeing her out of a dress. _No_ not out of a dress, just in something other than a dress. It seemed more her, more natural and comfortable. Kind of Cute. Although she looked fine in a dress too. 

“So,” she slid closer to him on the bench seat, opening a piece of paper, deliberating her plans with him about what they should ride and eat and in what order. She had a master plan. Kageyama caught Daichi’s eye glance at them in the rear view mirror a few times so he ducked his head to try to get out of view. Daichi was going to tell Suga everything about tonight.

He and Hinata stuck to the plan she had, tackling some small rides and working their way up to the big ones. Hinata had an iron gut, ready to go on the next ride as soon as they hopped off of one, but Kageyama made sure to meander and catch his breath. Rollercoasters apparently required a skill and he wasn’t very good at them. He got on them anyway because Daichi would just wait for them to get off, so it was the only time he wasn’t being supervised.

Neither of them brought it up that this was still just a fake date. Probably because Hinata was so caught up in the amusement park that Kageyama thought she might've forgotten they had a mission and that they weren't just here to hang out. He was forgetting too. It was nice to just hangout, to really forget his responsibilities and… have some fun. He particularly liked the teacups. He like pushing the wheel and having some control over how the ride went. And Hinata was too weak to turn it on her own, so she had to plead for his help.

When they got out of the teacup area they were corralled immediately by the masses of the people and pushed in a random direction. Kageyama looked around for Daichi, but the entrance wasn’t near the exit. It looked like they were separated.

He was about to start heading back so daichi could find them, but then Hinata took his hand in her smaller one, leading him away to the next ride. He wasn’t about to let go of her hand. And she didn't let go when they were standing in line together. He looked at the back of her head, trying to figure out what she was thinking, the tips of her ears turning noticeably red. He was thinking he might like her.

“You don’t have to pay me extra,” she said, too quietly, facing away from him. He wanted to see her face. “And if you hate it you can let go.”

“I-it’s fine.” He wasn’t even going to yell at her for ditching Daichi. He didn’t really mind, but it was still dumb of her. 

Unless she ditched him on purpose. 

He reached up to tug at her shoulder with his free hand and turn her around, when suddenly the person behind Kageyama bumped into him, unknowingly pushing him into Hinata. Reflexively, he gripped Hinata’s shoulder putting them face to face. 

His face was probably as red as hers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> im not sure if ive said it before but i think it must be really obvious. **This work is unbeta'd**  
>  ALSO omg i did not plan to end it there, i was gonna finish the scene, but then i saw how long it was getting and i didn't want to go over 3000 words. I'm an asshole. Next chapter will pick up where this one leaves off ~6o  
> Constructive Criticism always welcomed!


	6. Second Date Cont.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> very dead. not dead enough. very sorry.

### Shouyou

There was no reason for Kageyama to continue standing in his space, but he did. Hinata felt like squirming and moving away, dropping the hand he was holding and shrugging the other off his shoulder. That's what he knew he should do, but he couldn't. Not with a stare like that keeping him in place. Not after he was the one to hold Kageyama’s hand in the first place. He started it.

Hinata squeezed the hand in his hold (a reminder that he still had control over his body) and watched curiosity form on Kageyama’s face, an eyebrow lifting. _That's a nice face_. He noticed him slowly coming closer, leaning down into him, until their foreheads were pressed together. He’s so close then, he can smell the slight sting of sweat improperly masked by his deodorant. It wasn’t a bad smell, but it made his stomach twist into a heavy knot. There’s this small urge to get on his tiptoes and kiss him, which he resists because he knows he’s not a girl. Pretending to be one is really messing him up, making him think and feel this way. It’s the only explanation.

_He's so warm. He’s warm and he’s going to kiss me._

### Tobio

_She's so warm_. 

She was like a little ball of heat everywhere he was touching her. Her face was burning, her hand was hot, even her shoulder was radiating. She might be trying to burn him, but he didn’t care. He didn't know another person could feel this alive. He wanted to touch more. He wants to kiss her. He brings his lips to hers, slowly, giving her time to stop it if she wants to, but she doesn't. She’s so still he worries she’s not breathing until he feels the light puffs she exhales on his lips. She can’t possibly know what that’s doing to him. He can’t keep away from her anymore.

### Shouyou

_He's kissing me_. 

He couldn’t think of anything but how _good_ it felt. Their lips pressed together and finding their place so easily. He was unsure if he'd be able to stop, be able to keep away from kissing him after feeling this good. It was a drug, a laced kiss, and stopping would mean coming down hard.

### Tobio

Her lips quiver beneath his and it gives him chills. He wants more. He's scared that he'll never be satiated, that he'll always be hungry around her. Especially after this. He opens his mouth more, to swallow her, eat her whole, but he's stopped by a familiar clicking.

### Ittetsu

They were kissing! Good news for the paper! Just a few shots, they won't even notice him taking them. Oh. They noticed.

### Shouyou

Stopping was probably a good idea considering they were in public, with lots of people around. He'd already let it go too far. He felt a little dumb for believing Kageyama wanted to kiss him _just to kiss him_. It was for show. As it was supposed to be. He waved to Takeda, acting casual, his face definitely more flushed than usual. Takeda bowed an apology (probably to Kageyama, who didn't look happy at the moment) and disappeared around the corner. He couldn't tell for sure if he left.

Kageyama was still holding his hand.

### Tobio

He held on a little bit tighter now. He was annoyed at the people behind them sneaking glances, making Hinata face forward again. Kageyama wasn't ready to be done with the moment. He still wanted to kiss her. Dammit Takeda. Even if Hinata grabbed his hand just because she saw the cameras, he wasn’t letting go.

### Shouyou

It was a really long line and they didn't say much to each other after _that_. It would've felt really awkward if it weren't for the fact that they were still holding hands, the occasional squeeze becoming comfort. It was making his heart hurt. At first in the really good way, and then in the nauseating way because _Kageyama kissed him_ and _Kageyama thought he was kissing a girl_. He's going to hate Hinata when he finds out he's a boy. No, _If_ he finds out.

He didn't think it would go this far, kissing was supposed to be strictly hypothetical and this was becoming too much. Before it was just hanging out. But now they've kissed. And… He liked it. Just another thing for Kageyama to be disgusted by if he finds out. A boy deceiving him and stealing kisses from him. He'd probably think he was doing it on purpose but he wasn't, He would never want to like a boy. To start falling for one, especially not one like Kageyama.

Or maybe he'd think he wanted money. That he was going to blackmail him. He wants to turn around right now and tell him, that it's not like that, that he just likes him for some reason, and he's going to try to make it stop. To keep things professional. To keep being his friend.

Maybe they can't be friends after this.

He found it hard to enjoy the fireworks that night.

### Tobio

Hinata didn't text him later that night, or the next day, or the day after that. Kageyama wondered if it was because of the kiss. No, he knew it was, but what about it? Did she hate it that much? Did she hate him now? 

“She likes you,” Daichi had said when they were driving home from a particularly awful dinner party. His mother was practically pushing him on every available woman there. One of them was older than she was and didn’t know how to talk about much except embroidery and her deceased husband. His mother was still there, talking to everyone, being a people person. He took more after his father. At least that’s what his mother tells him.

“Who? Arisu?” Of course she liked him, he kind of liked her too in that lovable old woman way.

“No. Hinata.”

“Why are you? It- She doesn’t like me like that.”

He turned to look back at him as they were stopped at a red light. Kageyama looked out the window to the rain slickened street, avoiding his gaze. “She likes you. Like that. I can tell.”

“What would you know.”

“More than you”

Kageyama glared at the back of his head before the divider slid up between them. If he wasn’t so good at this job (and occasionally terrifying) he would’ve been fired for his smug mouth by now. Inwardly he knew Daichi was probably right as usual, but even if the knowledge made him happy it’s not like they could ever actually date with all the obstacles that come from being a prince and the only heir. 

Or could they?

No, he’s getting ahead of himself, none of it was even factual.

>   
> **You:** youre free tomorrow... we should meet for payment.

Logically, he shouldn’t have any nerves texting Hinata. Logically.

>   
> **Hinata:** yeah

Relief settles inside him. Until he thinks about how he’s going to see her. In person. _Tomorrow_. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Constructive Criticism and Suggestions Highly Encouraged because this thing is feeling messy ♫


	7. Doppelgangers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am avoiding all of my real life responsibilities ^_^  
> If theres any plotholes or spelling errors or anything that might need fixing please feel free to tell me! 
> 
> Or comment anything at all because the motivation keeps me going and is greatly appreciated!

### Shouyou

He got to their meeting spot before Kageyama and ordered himself something caffeinated and hot. He sipped on it slowly, claimed a two person table in the corner and waited. He knew Kageyama would show up any minute now, any second and he had to be ready for this meeting. He glanced nervously at the door. He was going to end the contract with Kageyama before things got out of control.

Caffeine was not good for his nerves.

Kageyama walked in the door and he decided he was never going to be ready.

### Tobio

He walked over to her quickly, he was late. It couldn't be helped since his mother sat in on his lesson this morning. Whenever she was there she had to butt in to say something and then she would just ramble on, like today. She ended up lecturing him about being more adult and making responsible decisions. He wasn’t sure he knew what it was to be an adult. Not really.

Sitting down across from her felt really good until he realized that something was off about her. She wasn’t her usual energetic self. And then he remembered he hadn't heard from her in days and she probably didn't want to be talking to him now. He frowned at the manila envelope in his hands. The only reason she came today.

“H-here.” He said, biting his cheek in the process of trying to say ONE word. He slid the folder roughly across the small table about the length of his arm. The sudden movement startled her. She stared down at it before looking into its contents. The faint smile she had disappeared and she got up to slip into her sweatshirt. He got up too, out of habit and watched her grab her coffee in the to go cup. So she wasn't planning to talk to him today either. Whatever.

### Shouyou

Hinata noticed his face fall and he just couldn't leave him alone looking like that. “Hey,” he said and Kageyama looked up at him, scowling and hurt. Hinata really didn't like him looking like this. He can't end this after all, “it was just part of the job, right?” He smiled. Kageyama's an idiot so he probably couldn’t tell how fake it was.

He looked away from Hinata, frowning at the floor, “of course.” Hinata watched him because it's obvious he wanted to say more, but wasn’t going to.

“Um, are you okay?” He tried.

“That's my line, dumbass!” Kageyama’s voice was too loud for the other patrons of the coffee shop that turned to look at him. Hinata laughed nervously and waved his arms dismissively at the onlookers. Why are there always onlookers? 

“I'm fine, but you-”

“Then why are you leaving so soon? And why haven't you texted me in days?”

“I,” he hadn't realized that This Kageyama was thinking about these things. It was kind of embarrassing, it's like he's… Interested in him.  
Oh god.  
Wait. 

A flush took over his cheeks and burned at the tips of his ears. This was…

“I've just been busy,” he finished. Kageyama was looking at him, at his reddening face, and he wasn't frowning anymore. Hinata lifted his elbow to try to cover it and said, “I actually picked up another shift at Linguini so I have to go. Like, right now.” He backed away as he said his sentence, Kageyama stepping after him until he had to turn and make a run for it. He really ran too, his near empty coffee cup was sloshing a bit in his hand.

It was lucky he had the head start because Kageyama started running after him. “Why are you running away from me?!” He shouted. He was super angry. No way was Hinata going to let himself be caught by this demon. A couple on the other side of the street walking their dog stopped to stare at them.

“Why are you running after me?!” He shouted back, but he didn't turn his head so it seemed like he was yelling at the little old woman watering her flowers that were already dying from the change of season. 

“Stop running and I’ll tell you!”

He did not stop running.

Kageyama was surprisingly fast, but, Hinata figured he just had to make it to the bus and he’d be safe. And there was the bus. He made a sharp turn to jump up the steps and use his card quickly. He made his way for the back of the bus as Kageyama climbed up behind him. Doesn't this guy know when to give up?

“Excuse me sir,” the bus person held out his arm out to stop him from getting any further on the bus. Kageyama glared at Hinata, but feral animals always look less dangerous behind glass walls. Hinata caught his breath and stared back with his own glare. Hinata will swear he heard a growl.

Kageyama points his finger straight at him and says, “I need to talk to that.”

That? Not very polite.

“You need to get off my bus if you're not going to pay,” the bus guy said. He wasn't having it. He looked young in age (despite his closely shaved head), but like he's already had to put up with a lot of shit. 

“Fine.” He resigned, pulling out his wallet. “Do you have change?”

“We only take exact payments.” Hinata was thankful for the bus person, his secret angel. He knew he could bend that rule if he wanted to. 

“Really? What a stupid…” He looked back at Hinata, who gave a triumphant face, before he turned to get off the bus. “Later,” he said before leaving. He probably meant they'd finish this later. Whatever this was. 

Kageyama was pretty weird. 

Hinata’s smile broke when the bus person said to him, “don't bring that around here again.”

“Sorry.” He replied. He couldn't promise he wouldn't.

### Tobio

By ‘later’ he meant ‘soon’ of course. After her shift at Linguini. He didn't know when exactly the shift was over or how he could find her since he couldn't go wait at her house. She said she wasn't telling her mother about this and he didn't want to ruin anything else between them. All he could do was text her.

>   
>  **You:** text me when youre done

And then he had wait. He found a bar near Hinata's house as close as he'd let himself go and sat himself down. There wasn't many people there since it was only like 4 in the afternoon. He sat down at the bar and ordered something to eat, watching the baseball game on the tv. A team sport.

“You like baseball?” The barkeep asked with a smile, trying to start a conversation. He was short, maybe shorter than Hinata and he had a streak of blond that stood out in his dark hair. He was more mellow than Hinata too. 

“It's ok.” He replied. “Not my favorite.”

“Then what is your favorite? I don't think the rest of these guys would care if I changed the station.”

They both look around the nearly empty bar. He was probably right in his assumption. “Probably… Volleyball.”

“Ooooh!” The small guy jumped in excitement, “me too!” He changed the station to some college match immediately and started rattling off trivia about some of the players on screen. Then some players off screen. Then he was pouring Kageyama a drink and telling him his life story. Isn't this situation a little backwards? 

He didn't mind listening though since Nishinoya (the bartender) kept saying the drinks were on the house and he was being really nice and cool. He listened intently, but at some point Nishinoya started asking him questions. Maybe it was the alcohol that was making his answers slip out so easily, like he didn't even have to think about his answers they were just happening. And he might've been laughing with him. It was fun. 

Then Hinata texted him back.

>   
>  **Hinata:** we should talk about it in person so maybe not today.
> 
> **You:** yrs todau im ay maryini  
>  **You:** by yout house

A small red message popped up after his texts that read “not sent”.

Bad service.

### Shouyou

It had been a really long day. During his shift he had served the pickiest man ever who was totally rude to him every time they talked, even though Hinata smiled through it. The guy didn’t even tip. Still not his worst customer ever, but pretty bad. 

He didn’t usually stop on his way home from the bus stop, but today seemed appropriate. He had some things to think about and sometimes a drink can help simplify things. Plus Martini’s was leaking noise and reeking of greasy food and alcohol. Hinata definitely wanted to check out what was going on in there, it wasn’t usually like this.

He bumped into a huge guy (in both height and build) when he tried to open the door, it was that packed. The huge guy apologized to Hinata, who apologized to him (a bit more frightened) before he slipped into the masses to try to get closer to the bar. Luckily a girl stood up from the stool she was sitting at so Hinata finally got some real estate. The bartender was busy at the other end so Hinata looked around the room in wait.

There was a particularly loud group of guys at the pool table, loudly exclaiming their victories and patting each other happily on the back. Others were gathering around to watch, though it didn’t seem entirely eventful to Hinata. They were taking multiple shots each at hitting the cue ball. There was a long line of girls at the bathroom looking like they weren’t going to make it. Some guys were hovering near them trying to chat them up. The rest of the room was just bodies and heat, it was getting hard for him to see past them all.

The person sitting next to Hinata got up from his stool and for a moment before the next body filled in the hole he could’ve sworn he just saw Kageyama. A smiling Kageyama.

Even though he was kind of avoiding him at the time, he couldn’t stop himself from wanting to see him smiling some more. If there was a chance it was him, Hinata needed to… He jumped up from his seat maneuvering through the bodies again, delving further into the mess. And then he was sure he saw Kageyama. He squeezed up close to him and grabbed his shoulder to get his attention. 

“What are you doing here?” Hinata shouted to the obviously inebriated boy. 

“You,” he squinted, “you look just like her.”

“What are you-” Hinata started before it registered with him. He wasn’t dressed as a girl. It was the real him in front of Kageyama. What was he going to say to him? Should he just tell him? Maybe he’s drunk enough to not understand or maybe he wouldn’t remember the next day. it could all just be a bad dream.

Before he gets to say anything, Kageyama tells him, “I don’t feel good.” Words you never want to hear from a drunk person. He immediately clapped a hand over his mouth. He grabbed Hinata’s arm, pushing him away and rushing past him with a wobble. Hinata quickly followed the path he made after him hoping he’d gotten outside. The awful smell of bile and beer rose to his nose when he finally forced his way out. 

Kageyama was hunched over the brown and beige pile he was creating, before the colors stopped and it turned into dry heaving. Hinata rubbed his upper back, which he could reach at the moment.

“You okay?” he asked gently.

“Fine.” He straightened up and wiped at his mouth with the back of his sleeve. It left a mark (and likely a smell). “I'm not usually like this,” he mumbled then looked over at Hinata. Then stared. “You look just like her,” he said again.

“I get that a lot,” Hinata laughed, looking away, “just one of those faces, you know?”

Kageyama looked at him skeptically, “I don’t think so.” 

Is that it? The slip up that ruins it all?

Hinata tried to think up a lie on the spot, but then Kageyama added, “I can’t believe doppelgangers are real.” He lifted his hand to his forehead to steady himself from being knocked off his feet from the news. 

Hinata snickered to himself. What an idiot. Really. And then he was staring at him again, saying “just like her,” and sliding down the wall. “AH,” he grabbed Kageyama and hoisted him back up before he ended up sitting in his own puke. He was heavy and losing consciousness. “You can’t sleep here! You have to get yourself home. Kageyama. Kageyamaaaaa. Are you listening?” He hummed a little in response, but he was totally gone. 

Now what?


	8. Kage-chan

### Shouyou

He ended up dragging him back to his house which was about a block of struggling to keep Kageyama barely walking. Mostly he was just using Hinata as support, leaning on his shoulders with all of his weight. He was generally agreeable about going with him though, which was good in this case because it was the safest option for him, but Hinata couldn’t help wondering about if he had been a stranger. This idiot was so drunk anyone could've grabbed him. He doesn't even know Hinata, not really.

When he gets home his sister answers the door, her hair disheveled from the sleep she was just in. She took one look at Kageyama before flitting her eyes back to Shouyou and asking in surprise, “is that him?”

“Um. Yeah, can you help me get him to the couch? He's really heavy.” She tries to support the other side of him, but she buckles a bit under his weight. They shove him off onto the couch and Hinata slumps down next to him, taking a breath.

His sister plops down on the other side of the drunk, keeping her distance. “He smells like throw up. Is this guy really a prince? Maybe he lied to you.” 

“He didn't lie to me.” He assures her. And himself because thinking about it, he really had no proof except his payments. He could search him on the Internet later.

“Just like her,” Kageyama mumbles, as he has been doing since he saw Hinata. He leans into Hinata and lays his head on his shoulder. Small noises of sleep slip from between his lips soon enough.

“You guys are pretty close,” Natsu says.

“I guess,” he says, trying to brush off her comment, but his face flushes against his wishes. Kageyama's body is warm against him and he worries he’ll die from this heat. “Listen, you have to pretend I'm your sister in the morning. He still doesn't know that I'm…” he looks down at Kageyama. He's asleep, but Hinata still can't say it out loud.

“Got it,” she smiles pleasantly. She was always willing to play along with him. “What about mom?”

“Mom. She… ugh. I guess I have to tell her now.” He made no move to go talk to her though. He didn't want to wake up Kageyama. He looked so peaceful and calm, he wasn't even glaring at him. It was nice. The only sign he was even alive was the light mumbling.

“Good luck with that,” Natsu said as she got up to go back to bed, leaving just him and Kageyama on the couch. Alone in the dark. It felt too intimate now, too obvious that they we're making physical contact. He should go talk to his mother so she knows there's a guest on her couch not just some drunk off the street. He tries to shimmy out from under the sleeping boy, but he's so heavy that he pins Hinata down onto the couch.

“You're cute like she is,” Kageyama murmurs to Hinata’s shirt, the one he's drooling on, “but she, she's better than you. She's the besssst.” _We're the same person_ , Hinata thinks. He doesn't breathe. If he did breathe it would tickle Kageyama’s ear; the one not pressed to his chest. He can tell Kageyama is breathing by the expansion of his lungs and the light push of his stomach against his own. This might be the first time Hinata realizes Kageyama is human. 

“You smell like her too,” Kageyama slurs, “I love this smell.” He drags his hand up Hinata’s chest to grab his shoulder, clinging onto him, looking helpless like a child. It's sweet for about 2 seconds before he’s nudging Hinata’s legs apart with his knee and rubbing his thigh where he really shouldn’t and ohmygodhessodrunk. His face glows red with embarrassment, being molested by a drunk guy, by a drunk Kageyama. Hinata pushes him down by his shoulders and tries sliding out to the side, but his grabby drunk hands are still holding. “Where are you going? Don't leave stay with me more come be with me”

“I'm right here, not going anywhere just,” he gives a final shove and he's free of his hold, “getting up”. He huffs to catch his breath and grips at his chest. Why did Kageyama have to say and do those things? And why is his heart doing this to him? He doesn't even want to acknowledge the reaction his lower half had. Stupid body. He eyes Kageyama on the couch, fast asleep aready and breathing heavily. He doesn't need him here anymore. 

He walks down the hall on shaky legs over to his mother's room and knocks, hoping she's still awake. “Come in,” she replies and he does, closing the door behind him. She's sitting up in her bed, a book in her hands and the light on on her nightstand. She closes the (is that a romance novel? Ew) book and sets it down next to her. 

“You should really be asleep,” he says. She needs rest.

“It's hard to sleep when I don't do much all day.”

“I know,” he sighs, “well, here's something interesting,” he tries to smile like this is a good thing. He takes a breath, ready to tell her everything. “My friend is on the couch right now and he's kind of drunk, and he thinks I'm a girl and we’re in a fake relationship, he'll probably be hungover tomorrow and might-”

“Shouyou!” His mother interrupts and he cringes waiting for her to scold. “You're pretending you're a girl? For how long? When are you going to come clean? Lying really isn't good for your conscience,” she has more to say, but she stops, “is that, is that where you're getting all that money? From being an escort?”

“I'm not an escort-”

“You're getting paid to go on dates!”

“But we don't do anything but pose for some pictures really-”

“Has he touched you?”

“MOM. He wouldn't do that,” he recalls the kiss for a second, but ignores the thought. “And I'm an adult. And a man. I can make this decision for myself I'm not asking you to agree with it or give me permission, I just wanted to let you know before he wakes up tomorrow.”

She doesn't say anything just rubs the cotton fabric of her pyjama sleeve between her thumb and forefinger. She stares down at it intently. It feels like she’s forgotten he’s there.

“If… If you could just not mention anything about me being a boy, please.”

She looks up finally, determination on her face. “You’re sure you have everything under control? Lies are dangerous, they hurt you and those you tell them to. Nothing good can come from it.

He feels a pang in his heart and usually they’re smaller and easier to ignore, but this time it really hurts. He grits his teeth before replying, “He’s the one who’s been assuming I’m a girl. I never said I was one.” It’s a childish excuse. Something about talking to parents always makes you feel 5 years old again. She looks at him like he’s 5 as well. “Ok, that’s all, I’ll leave now.” 

She doesn’t agree to help keep his secret. Hinata spends his night trying to think of what to say to Kageyama if everything is finally revealed. There’s the chance that he remembers everything from tonight, or his mother spills it all, or his sister slips up… 

He naps for about an hour, but the stress wakes him up again. It’s almost 5 am and the sun is beginning to rise so he doesn’t bother going to sleep. He has to look like a girl when Kageyama wakes up anyway. He wills himself out of the safety and comfort of his blankets to slip some sweats over his sleep shorts and wriggle into a baggy sweatshirt. As he’s clipping in his extensions (and making them look natural) he hears someone else up and moving in the house. He follows the noises of pots and pans clinking in the kitchen to find his sister trying to make breakfast. 

And Kageyama sitting at the counter island that’s connected to the living room. He looks much grumpier than he did last night and Hinata approaches with caution to sit at the chair next to him. “Morning,” He smiles and Kageyama grunts back at him, slumping his head forward into his palms. Hinata fiddles with the material of his sweatshirt, hoping he hasn’t figured anything out or thought too hard about last night. If he has, he isn’t letting on. 

“Morning, Shou-chan,” his sister says, chipper as he is in the morning. “Kage-chan seems pretty hungover, so I’m making him you’re remedy meal.” Kageyama peeks up at him with a smirk when he hears this. Wait, _Kage-chan_? When did they get so close?

“I- It’s not like I drink that much, it’s just,” _I’m a lightweight and I really feel the effects._ He wasn’t going to tell him that. “Shut up. Do you want some coffee or juice?” He gets up to look in the fridge and Kageyama tells him milk. “Milk? Are you a child?”

“It helps you grow taller. Not that you would know.” He pours some into a glass and pushes it over to Kageyama. Then pours a second glass, a taller one, and drinks from it himself sitting back down. Kageyama’s so smug about it.

“Morning,” Hinata’s mother calls as she walks in to take the seat next to Shouyou. 

She looks over to Kageyama who’s obviously nervous. “S-sorry to intrude. Thank you for letting me stay on your couch last night, I’m sure I haven’t made the best impression, but-”

“Nonsense,” she interrupts, a habit of hers, “You’re a friend of Shou-chan, you can’t just be left on the street.” 

“That’s… Thank you, you’re very kind.” His face flushes slightly and he’s not even drinking. This time it’s due to emotion. 

“Kageyama~ Don’t be embarrassed,” He teases, patting him on his back.

“I’m not embarrassed. Shut up, dumbass” He slaps the hand away and the he must rethink his actions in light of his present company. He looks up at their faces, “Sorry, Mrs. Hinata, I didn’t mean that, you have a lovely daughter.”

 _Daughter_. Why did he have to say that? Can’t they just leave gender out of it? He’s the real dumbass here. Hinata cringes. He looks to his mother for her response and he expects her to look conflicted, but she doesn’t. 

She’s collected when she responds, “Shou-chan is lovely, yes.” She glares daggers at her son when Kageyama isn’t looking.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How unedited? Very. 
> 
> if you find plotholes or other errors please tell me and I will fix them.
> 
> sorry I don't update so quick, just like, casually dying lmao.


	9. Morning After

### Tobio

He woke up to find a smaller version of Hinata walking by his bed. Except it wasn't his bed, it was a squishy tan couch and his body was groaning from laying on it. All of him was aching and he only vaguely remembered how he got here. Most of his memory was orange hair and citrus vanilla smells, so this must be Hinata's house. It was small, but, he expected that. He didn't expect to find a sister. When she walks past him again she must notice he's awake because she greets him good morning. 

“Um, yeah. Morning… Are you…?” He creases his brow and grabs at his forehead when that starts a reaction of shooting pains in his temples. He smells like throw up and his breath is rolling out of his mouth like stale carcasses. 

She laughs at him (which is loud) and he's too groggy to yell at her, but he makes a mental note of her lack of manners. “I'm Hinata Natsu, shou-chans sister. You were pretty drunk last night, how ya feeling?” She walks over to the connected kitchen and starts making too much noise with her pots and pans.

“Bad.” He tells her, regretting raising his voice.

“I'll make you something.”

“You don’t have to, I've already troubled your family enough.”

“Don't be dumb, I'm doing it because I want to.” She's definitely Hinata's sister. 

“Do you know…” he paused to adjust to the pain, which he knew could be bearable, “How I got here?”

“Shou brought you back last night.”

“Oh.” Of course she did, he remembers it a bit, her body close to his holding him up with her smaller frame. She found him at the bar last night when he was already pretty out of it and then… And then she witnessed him as the least prince like he's ever been, throwing up outside a small bar near her house. Most of the afterwards became pretty blurry.

“Morning,” came her voice from beside him, he didn't have to look to know it was her. He makes a sound to let her know he heard her and she sits down next to him smelling much better than he does. Citrus and vanilla. 

When he does see her, an unwilling sigh slips from between his lips. Something about her in the morning, still not dressed for the day and getting him something to drink. When she reaches above her head for cups the hem of her sweatshirt lifts up enough to reveal a sliver of skin. Because that's what's under her clothes, soft skin and small curves. Probably more freckles, so hidden that maybe there's even some she doesn't know about.

Hinata's mother is too nice to him. Talking to her makes him wish he wasn't royalty so his mother could treat him like a son instead of an apprentice. But he is royalty and he knows that after breakfast he has to get home and start apologizing for the rest of his life. He isn't looking forward to it and he doesn't want to leave the Hinata household either. Their family is calming to be around even though they’re all regretfully morning people.

They ate together like a family would and the remedy meal did help him feel a bit better, probably because it was accompanied by some pain relieving drugs. His headache lessens by the time he has to leave and Hinata’s mother and sister wish him goodbye. Hinata’s mother shuffles around in their hall closet until she pulls out a black coat for him. “It’s getting kinda cold out,” she tells him and pats the bundle affectionately in his arms.

He slips his shoes back onto his feet, before sliding his arms into the jacket. It’s about his size and just the right amount of thickness for fall. “I’ll get it back to you,” he tells her, but she smiles sadly at him and shakes her head.

“We don’t need it here.” He’s about to argue that, being a prince and all, he needs the jacket even less before Hinata reemerges from the hall she disappeared down. She’s dressed in an oversized cat sweater and some leggings that cling to her the way leggings do. Her outfit draws attention to three things:

1\. She's tiny. Like, Kageyama is pretty sure he could lift her up and hold her up for hours or catch her if she was jumping. He was also sure that if he wanted to grab her and keep her still, he’d be able to. He considers stuffing her in a suitcase just because she’d probably fit.  
2\. She has a really nice collarbone. He doesn’t want to think about that though.  
3\. Her legs are also tiny and nice. They’re also something he shouldn’t think about. At least not until after he talks to her about… 

“Hey,” she says.

“Hey,” he says, and he almost forgets to keep talking because he’s a little bit distracted by the ‘everything nice’ part of that nursery rhyme about boys and girls. Hinata’s mother clears her throat in the silence and Kageyama looks up- was he staring? - to see the worried expression on her face. “I,” he wants to say something to her worried face, but guilt comes over him. Hinata didn’t want him to meet her mother, and even though he felt a bit of hurt from it, he wanted to respect her request. He didn’t realize he would cause her trouble or that he’d feel bad about it. And he troubled her mother and sister. And he’s troubled his own mother. “I should get going.” 

“Um,” Hinata steps closer to him and says, “I’ll walk you to the bus stop.”

He gives a nod and lets her follow him out the door. Her sister shouts goodbye from somewhere in the house. 

“So,” he starts, but he feels too tired to talk now and his brain is all fuzzy and heavy.

“So,” she echoes. He looks over to see her, to try to read something from her expression and of course she’s an open book. Usually. “You’re wearing my dad’s old jacket.”

He looks down at the weighted material protecting him from the chilled fall air. It’s a nice jacket, but wearing it suddenly becomes an odd feeling, so much more foreign than belonging to a friend. Now it belongs to a stranger. “Sorry, should I-”

“You don’t have to do anything. My mom’s been looking for an excuse to get it out of our house and you just happened to be it. Besides,” she looks at him- his shoulders, arms, chest- a moment longer before shrugging, “it looks good on you.”

Kageyama can’t stop the heat from creeping up the back of his neck. “Thanks,” he mutters and her smile lets him know she heard. “Your dad…” He doesn’t know where to take that sentence to get his thoughts across, but thankfully she understands anyway.

“He died when I was in junior high. I’m,” she swallows hard and shakes her head. She smiles up at him, but it’s tense, “weren’t we supposed to talk about something? I mean, why were you chasing me yesterday?”

“Yeah,” he sighs, a small puff forms. “It’s fine, I’m not mad anymore.”

“Why were you mad?”

“You,” his eyebrows draw together and he shoots her a look, “you were avoiding me.”

She looks surprised at his accusation, but also a little guilty. “I was not.”

“Yes, you were.”

“No.” She says defiantly and crosses her arms.  
“ _Hinata_ ” he growls through his teeth and grabs for her, to shake some sense into her. She breaks position to grab his hands with her own before they can harm harm her. She makes that small ‘eep’ sound as she struggles to keep her ground. He thought she’d give quickly, but she’s stronger than he thought she’d be, pushing back enough to stay matched with him. Equal. 

Until he backs up too much and he’s tripping on the ground, or his own feet and bringing her down with him in a pile of limbs. There’s a moment where he’s unsure where his body is and where hers is in relation, but the moment is fleeting. He quickly becomes aware of the pressure on his abdomen as her torso and her head ended up on his chest, the rest of her falling between his legs. If all that wasn’t bad enough, of course ( _of course_ ) their hips would be more aligned than the planets every 500 years. The realization stiffens him. _No, god, not stiffen_. It freezes him.

“Sorry,” she says in a voice that’s quieter than usual. “Can I have my hands?” She asks because _he’s still gripping her hands_. He lets go quickly and she frowns at him getting up from the mess. She offers a hand and he takes it. She’s being so nonchalant about this.

Probably because she doesn’t have feelings for him.

She laughs and startles him out of thinking, “I pushed you down.”

He scoffs at her claim, “you did not,” and they walk the rest of the way to the bus stop together.

 

When he got home it was like he expected it to be. He buzzed to be let in the tall gate and the security girl who was monitoring the cameras answered with a screeched “Prince Kageyama!” 

And it began. She let him in and he walked slowly to the large entrance doors which he opened to his mother in her silk robe. He closes the door behind him as she strides up to him in the dim room. She slaps him hard across the face.

There’s particular sting from her ring finger.

“Where _were_ you?” She holds a fierce look of disappoint and anger fixed on his red cheek. Her lips quiver then tighten into a thin line. 

“I was with a friend.” Even though he wants to yell right back at her, he won’t. Even though he wants to grab his hot cheek with a cold hand, he won’t. He closes his mouth and tightens his fists behind his back, waiting for her response.

“With a friend?” She reiterates incredulously, “Do you know how irresponsible and _idiotic_ that was?” She begins to flail her arms to help make her point. “You can’t just go out like that whenever you want, you have to at least tell someone for god’s sake. You aren’t like everybody else, you have a responsibility and a duty to your people to at least _try_ to stay alive.” She laughs in that way that isn’t brought on by some lighthearted joke. “Do you think it’s funny to just disappear for an entire night? Do you not care about your people?”

She stares at him expectantly and he misses his cue to respond by just a second. “Are you going to answer me?” She pushes.

“I care about my people.”

She stares in silence like she hasn’t yet chosen the words to yell next. “What friend? Was it that girl from the paper?” 

“Yes.” Now is not the time to feel awkward about that, but his face heats up anyways.

She rolls her eyes at his response, “Imagine if people found out that you slept over there.” The way she says it, like she’s disgusted by Hinata and her family makes him want to yell at her. Makes him want to not care about the consequences, but he’s smarter than that. 

“It’s not like anyone would be able to know if we had sex or not.” She seems taken aback by his comment. His ‘impure mention of sexual relations’. He takes a little satisfaction in her look of shock, it’s not enough. He’ll never have enough from her though. Her shock turns to rage and her face reddens like she’s eating some spicy curry and refusing to spit it out.

“I’m hiring a fulltime bodyguard. I don’t know how to trust you on your own after all the sneaking around you’ve been doing this past month or so.”

“Mother! Be reasonable, I promise-”

“You were never like this before that girl. She’s not a good influence on you, Tobio, she wasn’t brought up like a lady. She could never be-”

“She’s not a bad influence. Don’t talk about her like that.” He says it with enough conviction to get her to actually shut up. She looks at him in thought, again. She stares at him like he’s a hard math problem that she has to solve, but really she just wants to give up.

“Well, I don’t know much else about her, now do I?” He avoids her eyes when she asks that, he doesn’t want her to suggest, “Have her over for dinner.” Yeah, he doesn’t want her to suggest that. “Kageyama? Did you hear me?”

“What?”

“Let’s have her over for dinner. Sometime soon. I want to meet your girlfriend, it seems like you really like her,” again with the blushing (it’s getting out of hand), “and she’ll need a lot of grooming if she wants to be queen.” 

It’s not just that he thinks dinner with his mother is a dreadful event, it’s what’s written in the contract that makes his veins tingle like they're slowly freezing over. 

**Termination of contract will be enacted as decided by the contractor [see below]**

Underneath, Hinata had written in a sloppy under practiced scrawl:

“When the relationship gets too serious i.e. meeting his mother”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> who died. me.  
> if you're still reading this thanks for sticking around! (I absolutely love you and im not neglecting you i swear, things just got busy and... not so good.)  
> Comment, like and subscribe!
> 
> wait this isn't youtube


	10. 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> can i stop pretending ik how to name a chapter

### Tobio

**You: you free right now?**

He has to tell Hinata about his mother and what she said. He considers sneaking out to go tell her in person, but they have him under lockdown and even he understands that it would be damn disrespectful to leave without telling anyone at this point. He could just call her, but there was something else that he didn’t want to say to her over the phone.

He couldn't say it before, but now he has to.

He decides his best option is to persuade Daichi to take him to meet her. He ambles through the house, poking his head into the large doors and scaring a couple maids. He clears the upper level and heads down to the main floor. Chances are good Suga is doing some idle housework with the maids or prepping for the chefs, he's never just sitting around. When Kageyama finally finds him, he's alone folding little cloths into neat triangles at the large dining table, moving from one spot to the next all the way around.

Kageyama clears his throat to try to get his attention when he isn't noticed. Being unnoticed quickly turns into being ignored. “Suga,” he says it like he's a commander, but he feels like a child asking for an adult, the adult in question being more childish than usual with the silent treatment. Kageyama takes a step towards him and waits for any sort of response. Suga just moves on to the next cloth. 

Kageyama bows his head to him, low enough for it to be embarrassing even for someone who doesn't have a divine right, and shouts an apology. He's not sure what else to do, so he keeps his head bowed.

He hears an awkward cough and lifts his eyes to find Suga smiling, the kind of smile that doesn't want to be seen but can't be helped. “Thank you. I accept your apology,” his smile quickly dissipates, “but I'm still mad at you. You're better than last night. Don't let it happen again.”

“I understand. I won't.” He lifts from his bow and stops himself from saying anything else. He knows that right now he’s supposed to give Suga time to get over it and he can’t just yell it at him. Even if that’s what he wants to do. He leaves the room quietly to go find Daichi, who would also likely be upset with him.

He is. 

“You're not leaving,” the biceps of his crossed arms twitch in finality, but Kageyama can’t give up. He makes his way across the grand hall to where Daichi stands in front of the door. 

“Listen,” Kageyama says in his most royal voice, “I'm not asking you,” he wants to finish with ‘I'm telling you’ but the displeased and unfriendly look Daichi gives him stops him there. He wasn't giving up though, not after Hinata texted back that she was free only for the next three hours. “I'm not asking you… To break any rules. The queen never said I couldn't go out if I had you with me.” Daichis look softened as he thought about it. “This is important, I need to talk to Hinata.”

“Can't you call her?”

“No, this,” he focused on not letting himself over heat, “it has to be in person.”

Daichi gives him the most knowing look, and Kageyama wonders how he could possibly understand the feelings he's experiencing. Kageyama hardly understands them. Daichi grabs him by the arm and tells him, “we still shouldn't get caught leaving. Let's go.”

###  Shouyou

They were meeting at their usual coffee shop and, also as usual, he got their first. He chose a table close to the door this time, just in case one of them had to bolt for seemingly unknown reasons. Like emotions. He hopes they won't talk about emotions; He doesn't need to share any unnecessary information. 

He really doesn't.

Kageyama shows up with his bodyguard, his Daichi, who stands awkwardly by his side at the small table. “Ms. Hinata,” he addresses with a nod, “haven't seen you in awhile.”

Hinata’s a little bit flattered that Daichi would remember him. Daichi seems like someone he could look up to. “Yeah, since the amuse-”

“You and Kageyama held hands for an hour straight.” Kageyama coughs over him, but Hinata can still hear him clearly. What was that about looking up to him? Hinata gapes at what he's said, but can't argue with the truth. Daichi smirks at Kageyama (who gives a nasty glare) and excuses himself to take a seat at a nearby table to “give them some privacy”. The tables were pretty close though, so the privacy was questionable.

“Bodyguard today?” Hinata asks with a huff. 

Kageyama nods in response, “probably for awhile. Last night was kind of-”

“Sorry, I guess I wasn't thinking when-”

“Stop that.” Hinata flinches at his harsh tone. Kageyama was probably mad Hinata had talked over him, he was probably going to yell at him- “It's obvious it wasn't your fault.” 

Hinata blinked. “Oh.”

“Yeah.” Kageyama looked away as if admitting this was as unbearable as watching an execution.

“Okay,” he couldn't help a smile of relief, “ so then what did you want to talk about?”

“My mother,” he says, like it's a natural topic of conversation. When Hinata thinks about it, they've hardly spoken about his mother at all. Kageyama shifts in his seat, “She wants to meet you.”

“Um,” he swallows around his discomfort at the dilemma. He knows what comes next and he wasn’t expecting it to come so soon. Who meets the parents after only two dates? “Then are we breaking up?” He looks down at the table. It has the appearance of wood, but really it’s a plastic print layer over some cork. 

“Well, it’s what’s written in the contract, right?” The way he says it is just a bit meaner than it has to be. 

“Right.” Except he doesn’t want to do this. He wants to keep pretending with Kageyama a little bit longer. This was really too soon, but of course it has to end sometime. It’s not like Hinata could become queen. How would a life like that even work? And eventually Kageyama would want things from him. Things that boys want from girls, not other boys. It’s not like he hasn’t noticed the way Kageyama’s looks linger sometimes. 

It’s best that Kageyama never finds out. It’s time to end it. 

“So,” Hinata continues, his lips are chapped so he licks them, “it should be public and probably my fault. We don’t want your people to blame you for anything…” Kageyama stares at him, but Hinata refuses to meet his eyes. He’s afraid that Kageyama would know everything if he did. “We should go to a restaurant so you can treat me to more good food!” He laughs, pulling at the stitching on the side of his pants. “But we can’t break up until after dessert.”

“Hinata.”

“You already know I'm free this weekend so I guess that's when we should do it. What should be our reason for breaking up? Or is this even a break up? I mean we only went on two dates so it's-

“Hinata, I-”

“-really not a big deal.”

“Shut up, Hinata,” he growls, but his eyes, when Hinata finally looks, are a mixture of frustration and sadness. “I have something to tell you.” 

Of course Hinata’s heart would beat faster, pumping his blood up to his cheeks.

“I,” for all the confidence Kageyama had a moment ago, it all seems to have left him. He sits still for a moment his face noticeably shading a darker red as time passes. 

“Kageyama?”

“I think…. I don’t want to break up.” He slumps his head forward into his crossed arms resting on the table. The tips of his ears stick out as red among his black hair. Hinata bites his lower lip to keep from giggling. 

Or maybe he’s biting down to stop himself from crying. His chest and throat squeeze at him and urge him _you have to tell him_. He knows he has to tell him and if he’s going to, now would be the time right? If there’s a possibility of them being t-together he has to say something.

He doesn’t say anything. His throat constricts so tightly he’s not sure he could manage words if he wanted to. At least not the right ones. “This,” his voice breaks, he coughs to clear it, but the tremor stays, “this was only a fake relationship. Everything was fake, even the feelings, you must be confused right now, but soon-”

“Dumbass Hinata,” he lifts his head from the table and glares at him. The person he’s confessing to. “You can’t tell me what I’m feeling. I know what’s real to me and what isn’t, and this is real. I’m not stupid.”

His heart beats hard at the words, and he curses it quietly. He’s not allowed to feel excited about those words, it shouldn’t mean anything to him. Hinata laughs but it’s empty. A slow heat rolls down his cheek before he wipes it away with the sleeve of his sweatshirt. “You must be stupid because _this isn’t real_ ”

“Really? That’s what you’re going to say to me? If none of this was real then why the fuck are you so… Fucking,” He balls a fist into his hair. 

Neither of them says anything for a moment. Hinata breathes deep trying to focus, “I think you should leave.”

“What. I'm not leaving, we have to talk about this.”

“Fine, then I'll leave,” he gets up and pushes his chair in, no drink in case he had to run, “there's nothing to talk about.”

Kageyama grabs his hand to stop him, “you can't leave! You moron we have to-” a third down comes down ontol of theirs. 

“You're making a scene. What's going on?” Daichi gives a stern look to the prince, who releases his grip on Hinata and pushes his own chair in. 

“I'll be taking my leave then,” and as he passes, in a hushed voice he adds, “we don't need to have two breakups. Goodbye Hinata.” 

He smelled like fresh aftershave. Hinata clenches his fist at his side to keep himself in place. He's afraid his body might move on its own. Daichi gives a polite bow before he lets the coffee shop door close behind them. And then it's just Hinata standing there with the fake wood table and multiple unwanted stares. 

He doesn't need to lie anymore. He doesn't have to dress up like a girl anymore or go on another date with a guy. He's got a good amount of money to keep his family alive until he can pick up another job or two. Everything is settled. Since it's over, he’ll probably never see Kageyama again. 

Probably never.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i was having trouble trying to keep them in character im sry if its real bad  
> also any additional tag suggestions? bc im open to that
> 
> constructive criticism or casual comments encouraged


	11. Chapter 11

###  Natsu 

It's been 2 months since he last saw Kageyama and he's been moping around the house and bringing his obvious sadness to every meal. The only time there isn't a dark aura surrounding the house is when he leaves to work a shift at one of his jobs. He's picked up a new position at a coffee shop he's been frequenting, often coming home smelling like grinds with a half drank to go cup in hand. Luckily they have a bunch of money leftover from his prince dating job, so even though all of them don't pay much, he can hold off on another job. For now. 

Tonight she smells him before she sees him, the signature smell of Linguini’s strong garlic wafting over to where she sat on the couch watching a rerun of her favorite soap. “Hey Shouyou!” 

He sits heavily on the couch beside her and leans back into the cushions. “Natsu, you have school tomorrow, why are you up right now?” 

“Mom said I could finish this episode.” She looks over to him at the commercial break. Still dressed in all black and his stained apron in his lap. He's down. Even with his head tilted back she can see that his eyes are closed and his brow is pulled tight just like his mouth. “You thinking about Kageyama?”

His eyes snap open and he whips his head in her direction, “what? No, of course I'm not- why would I be-”

“Because you like him,” she drags out the ‘like’ slow enough to sing it to him.

“No!”

“You like like him.”

“Natsu shut up! I don't like him like that.”

She fakes her gasp, but not her smile as she teases, “you love him?”

His face goes red and that gives Natsu the confirmation she was looking for. He totally loves Kageyama. He smacks his hands over his face and says to his palms, “Natsu stop it! It's not like that! He was a… Friend.” The parts of his face he couldn't quite cover are blushing harder as he talks. “I just miss him as a friend. I liked hanging out with him as friends because even though he's a jerk and he's mean to me, he's also sometimes fun and kinda nice.”

From what Natsu saw of him he didn't seem all that fun. Her brother has a weird type. And bad character judgement. She doesn't get it, but she says she does. “Why don't you just tell him you want to stay friends?” 

“I can't do that”

“Why not?”

He drops his hands to his side and looks at her intently.

His gaze makes her nervous almost, it's intense. She hasn't seen that look in a quite a while. “What?” She asks. 

“Last time I met him,” he pauses and looks around, she isn't sure what he was looking for but he’s cautious, lowering his voice, “he said he wanted to date me for real and that he liked me, but he only felt that way because he thought I was a girl. I thought it would be easier to end everything with him than to tell him the truth.”

“Woah.”

“Yeah”

“That's tough.” She surveys him, his hair still pulled back into a small ponytail from work, his downward eyes showing off the length of his eyelashes. It wouldn't be hard to confuse him for a girl like this. Not to mention his short stature and a figure that was more slender than the average 24 year old. “Do you still think it was the right decision?” 

He bites his lip in response, “it's for the best.” 

“You know Shou,” she sighs. She’s been meaning to give him this talk. “Sometimes it's okay to be selfish. You don't have to give up everything you want just because it's for the best. Ever since you quit volleyball, it's like you won't let yourself have anything,” he opens his mouth to protest but she keeps going, “your team understands that you had to leave and I'm sure they forgive you, but you need to grow up and forgive yourself.” 

He nods, seemingly considering what she's saying to be the truth. Natsu wasn't sure that he would believe her, she feels like she's on a roll and she shouldn't stop now, he still needs a nudge. “You can't give up this time. You need to tell Kage-chan that you're a boy and you're in love with him and you need to fight for him because you want to and you deserve to.” 

He shakes his head quickly before starting to laugh, “I'm not in love with him”

“You're just in denial right now, but you'll see.” She smirks at him and shrugs as her show comes back.

“I mean maybe I'm-”

“Shh, it's almost over.”

She doesn't notice when he leaves the room.

### Tobio

The paper came out two weeks after it happened. 

He never even noticed when their picture was taken at the coffee shop. He didn't think anyone was ever watching them there, he thought that was their place to just be, but Daichi definitely brought attention to them. Walking in with a bodyguard will do that to people. Give them unwanted attention. The photo was low quality, likely taken by cellphone from one of the shop's patrons who picked the perfect moment. They're both standing at the small table, him grabbing her wrist as she makes to leave. He looks as frustrated as he remembers being, but now he can see it on her face too, the frustration. 

He hated looking at that paper, but his mother kept leaving it on the table as some cruel form of punishment. When she saw it (and she saw it before him) she said, “well that's a shame. I was so looking forward to meeting her.” Her lips turned up at the corners, however, betraying her words. She's gloating over how right she was. She's thinking to herself, _she wasn't serious about you, you were like a trophy to her, she could never handle being a queen _.__

__She doesn't even bother asking him what happened that broke them up, she just wants this chapter to be over, for him to move on to someone more refined. She'd already set him up on two different dates both of which would not have a second. They were boring and the girls were vague, only giving answers when they thought they'd appeal to his tastes. Hinata was never like that. He misses that._ _

__He misses her._ _

__That dumbass._ _

__When one month becomes two, Kageyama makes up his mind that he needs to see Hinata again._ _

### Shouyou

__His sister was right, he was giving up before and it wasn't fair to himself or to Kageyama. He needs to fight for it, and he needs to tell Kageyama without backing out. He wasn't sure how he was going to do it, and figured he could probably just wing it once he got there since he was already on the bus over. Or one of the buses anyway, there were quite a few transfers, he’d stopped being able to recognize where he was miles back and crossed his fingers that whatever happened between him and Kageyama wouldn’t entirely destroy his chances of maybe getting a ride home. Daichi might show some mercy if he begged._ _

__Hinata pulls the cord above his head for his final stop and steps off the bus with a weight in his stomach. He drags himself three blocks down from the stop and notices the other buildings becoming fewer and fewer, replaced by foliage and then a tall white wall which he follows. The weight in his stomach drops lower as he approaches the gate which finally allows him to see more than just the roof of the estate. He pushes his face against the bars to get an even closer look and can’t help the surprised noise he makes._ _

__He knew Kageyama was rich, it’s just different to find out he’s been living in a palace. It’s two stories tall, but he can’t tell how far it stretches back. For a moment he lets himself get excited about seeing the inside, just imagining how beautiful their garden would be (assuming they had one), but then he remembers that his visit may not be so pleasant if it goes according to plan. He backs off from the gate with a huff and he tries the intercom to the side, pressing the biggest white button and waiting._ _

__“Hello, this is the Kageyama estate how may I be of assistance?” The voice is friendly enough, but it’s unfamiliar._ _

__“U-um, it’s Hinata Shou-shouko here to see Kageyama Tobio.” He hated lying about his name, but that’s the one he had given Kageyama when they first met, it’s the one he’d recognize._ _

__“I see. Do you have an appointment?”_ _

__“...No”_ _

__“Well, he’s out, but I could help you schedule an appointment for when he’s back?”_ _

__“Oh, sure.”_ _

__“The soonest he’s free is next month on the tenth.”_ _

__“Wha- Next month? What is he doing that he’s so busy for a month?”_ _

__“Well he-”_ _

__“Ah, sorry to bother you, nevermind about the appointment, have a nice day.”_ _

__“Y-you too…”_ _

__Hinata turns to leave for the bus stop. It didn’t occur to him that he wouldn’t be able to get in to even talk to Kageyama. Of course he’d be busy, he has a tight schedule being a prince and all. He’s probably off on some marriage interview or talking business with someone important. With Hinata’s fast pace he’s almost made it to the bus stop when he realizes his phone is buzzing in his pocket._ _

__It’s Kageyama.__

> __Where are you?_ _

__  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry if this is a little rough and not a lot but it's the first solid thing ive written in like? a year is it? idk if/when i'll update again
> 
> mental illness amirite lmao


End file.
